Category: DC Superhero

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Shazam! Family Archives volume 1


By William Woolfolk, Otto Binder, Joe Millard and many unknown authors, C.C. Beck, George Tuska, Mac Raboy, Al Carreño, Mark Swayze & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0779-3 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

One of the most venerated and beloved characters of America’s Golden Age of comic books, Captain Marvel was created in 1940: part of the wave of opportunistic creativity which followed the stunning success of Superman in 1938 and Batman one year later. Although there were many notable similarities in the early months, Fawcett’s champion quickly moved squarely into arenas of light entertainment and even pure comedy, whilst as the years passed the Man of Steel increasingly left whimsy behind in favour of action, drama and suspense.

Homeless orphan and all-around decent kid Billy Batson was selected by an ancient wizard named Shazam to utilise the powers of six ancient gods and heroes in a never-ending battle against injustice. Thereafter he could transform from scrawny, precocious kid to brawny (adult) hero Captain Marvel by speaking aloud the wizard’s acronymic name – invoking the powers of legendary patrons Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury.

Publishing house Fawcett had first gained prominence through an immensely well-received magazine for WWI veterans entitled Captain Billy’s Whiz-Bang, before branching out into books and general interest magazines. Their most successful publication – at least until the Good Captain hit his stride – was the ubiquitous boy’s building bible Mechanix Illustrated and, as the comicbook decade unfolded, the scientific and engineering discipline and “can-do” demeanour underpinning MI suffused and informed both the art and plots of the Marvel Family titles.

Captain Marvel was the brainchild of writer/editor Bill Parker and brilliant illustrator Charles Clarence Beck who, with his assistant Pete Costanza, handled most of the art for the series throughout its stellar but too brief run. Before eventually evolving his own affable personality the Captain was serious, bluff and taciturn: a rather charmless powerhouse. Always, junior alter ego Billy was the true star: a Horatio Alger archetype of impoverished, boldly self-reliant and resourceful youth overcoming impossible odds through gumption, grit and sheer determination…

After homeless orphan newsboy Billy was granted access to the power of legendary gods and heroes, he won a job as a roaming radio reporter for Amalgamated Broadcasting and first defeated demonic Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana, setting a pattern that would captivate readers for the next 14 years…

At the height of his immense popularity Captain Marvel – and many of his fellow Shazam!-powered pals – were published twice monthly and outsold Superman, but as the Furious Forties closed, tastes changed, sales slowed and Fawcett saw the way the wind was blowing. In 1953, they settled an infamous, long-running copyright infringement suit begun by National Comics in 1940 and the “Big Red Cheese” vanished – like so many other superheroes – becoming no more than a fond memory for older fans. Fawcett in full bloom, however, was a true publishing innovator and marketing dynamo – now regarded as inventor of many established comic book sales tactics we all take for granted today. This stunning, lavishly sturdy full-colour hardback compendium gathers magnificent examples of the most effective strategy: spin-off characters linked to the primary star. Fawcett was the company responsible for creating crossover-events and in 1942 they devised a truly unforgettable villain and set him simultaneously loose on their stable of costumed champions whilst using his (temporary) defeat to introduce a new hero to their colourful pantheon.

The epic creation of Captain Marvel Jr. and his originating antithesis Captain Nazi were fully covered in Shazam! Archives volume 4 so feel free to go there first…

This subsidiary collection gathers his subsequent appearances as brand new headliner in Master Comics #23-32 (February to November 4th 1942) plus the first issue of his own solo title (Captain Marvel Jr. #1, cover-dated 18th November 1942) and also includes the debut appearance of mighty Miss Mary Marvel who premiered in Captain Marvel Adventures #18 (December 11th 1942). All that and the stunning covers by Beck & Raboy are preceded by an erudite and incisive Foreword from artist, editor, historian – and former student of C.C. Beck – P.C. Hammerlinck, who reveals many secrets of the original comics’ production before the classics commence.

Sadly, although the artists involved are easily recognisable, the identities of these tales’ writers are lost to us but strong possibilities include primarily Rod Reed and Ed “France” Herron (both early editors of Fawcett’s comics line) as well as Bill Parker, Manly Wade Wellman, Joe Millard, Otto Binder and William Woolfolk.

Before the advent of the World’s Mightiest Boy, Bulletman – ably assisted by his companion Bulletgirl – was undoubtedly Fawcett’s runner-up star turn; hogging the covers in monthly Master Comics and carrying his own solo comic title. That all changed with the 21st issue and murderous arrival of Captain Nazi. Hitler’s Übermensch made manifest, the monstrous villain was despatched to America to spread terror and destruction and kill all its superheroes.

The Horrendous Hun stormed in, taking on Bulletman and Captain Marvel who united to stop the Fascist Fiend wrecking New York City. The battle ended inconclusively but restarted when the Nazi nemesis tried to wreck a hydroelectric dam. Foiled again, the monster sought to smash a new fighter plane prototype before Captain Marvel countered him, but was not quick enough to prevent the killer murdering an old man and brutally crushing a young boy.

Freddy Freeman seemed destined to follow his grandfather into eternity, but guilt-plagued Billy brought the dying lad to Shazam’s mystic citadel where the wizard saved his life by granting Freddy access to the power of the ancient gods and heroes. Physically cured – except for a permanently maimed leg – there was a secondary effect: whenever he uttered the phrase “Captain Marvel” Freeman transformed into a superpowered, invulnerable version of his mortal self.

The prototype crossover epic concluded in Master Comics #22 when the teen titan joined Bulletman & Bulletgirl in stopping a string of Captain Nazi-sponsored murders, victoriously concluding with a bold announcement that from the very next issue he would be starring in his own solo adventures. That parade of epic exploits begins in this tome with ‘Captain Nazi’s Assassination Plot’ (Master Comics #23), immaculately rendered by the Alex Raymond-inspired Raboy who would produce for the feature some of the most iconic art of his illustrious career. Sadly, that meant struggling constantly with punishing deadlines and his own impossibly harsh standards. Moreover, the legend abounds that Raboy would rewrite scripts he wasn’t happy with…

Earning a living selling newspapers on street corners, young Freddie spots Captain Nazi again and dogs his corpse-strewn trail as the fascist kills a British agent and attempts to murder President Roosevelt. Then ‘Death by Radio’ introduces sinister serial killer Mr. Macabre who brazenly broadcasts his intention to assassinate former business partners until the young Marvel confronts him. Master Comics #25 sees Freddie investigate a little lad’s broken balloon in Woolfolk & Raboy’s ‘The Case of the Face in the Dark!’, only to stumble upon a cunning plot by the Japanese to invade Alaska. Whereas his senior partner’s tales were always laced with whimsy, Junior’s beautifully depicted exploits were always drenched in angst, tension and explosive action. The climax, which involved the bombastic boy-warrior shredding wave after wave of bombers, is possibly one of the most staggering printed spectacles of the Golden Age…

On a smaller scale, the next issue featured Otto Binder’s ‘The Return of Mr. Macabre!’ as the killer, turned sickly green after a failed suicide attempt, kidnaps a US inventor ferrying vital plans to England. The plot goes well until Macabre’s rendezvous with Captain Nazi in mid-Atlantic is interrupted by Junior, who saves the day by ripping their battleship apart with his bare hands! In a rare display of close continuity, Freddie then carries on to London in MC #27 to counter ‘Captain Nazi and the Blackout Terror’, with the malign master of disguise setting out to neutralise the city’s anti-Blitz protocols. For his service, Freddie is made a special agent for Winston Churchill…

Never captive for long, in the next issue the Hunnish Hauptman spearheads an Atlantic reign of terror and kidnaps America’s chief of War Production, until Junior single-handedly invades ‘Hitler’s Headquarters of Horror’, linking up with a German Resistance movement to free the crucial captive. After such smashing successes it was no surprise that in #29 British Intelligence tapped innocuous Freddie Freeman to infiltrate Hitler’s Fortress Europa and prepare the enslaved populations under ‘The Iron Heel of the Huns’ to rise when the inevitable Allied counterattack came…

MC #30 saw the wonder boy back in the USA, stopping Captain Nazi’s plan to poison an entire military base in ‘Captain Marvel Jr. Saves the Doomed Army’, before malignant Mr. Macabre joins the Japanese to abduct a crucially-placed diplomat in ‘The Case of the Missing Ambassador’ but inevitably tasting frustrating defeat and receiving the sound thrashing he so richly deserves…

With #32, Master Comics became a fortnightly publication, but Freddie barely noticed since he was embroiled in a decidedly domestic atrocity wherein corrupt orphanage officials collected and abused disabled kids to turn a profit in ‘The Cripple Crimes’…

A blockbuster hit, “The Most Sensational Boy in the World” promptly won his own title as 1942 drew to a close, but with Raboy already hard-pressed to draw 14 pages a month to his own exacting standards, Captain Marvel Jr. #1 was illustrated by reliable Al Carreño – a Fawcett regular who had covered almost every character in the company’s stable.

The bumper book – probably scripted by Binder & Joe Millard – began by briefly reprising ‘The Origin of Captain Marvel Jr.’ before depicting ‘Wings of Dazaggar!’ wherein Junior follows Captain Nazi to an occupied West African colony and uncovers a flight of secret super-planes intended to bomb America to dust. After scotching that scheme Freddie is drawn into an eerie murder-mystery as a succession of gangsters and investigative reporters fall victim to ‘The Shadow that Walked!’…

Then, thugs snatching beggars off the street to fuel a fantastically callous insurance scam make their biggest mistake by grabbing lame Freddie Freeman as their next patsy in ‘The Case of the Cripple Kidnappers’, before the soaring sagas conclude on a redemptive note as Captain Marvel Jr. “encourages” ‘The Cracked Safecracker’ to renounce his criminal ways and look after his elderly, ailing and extremely gullible parents…

This superb graphic grab-bag concludes with a landmark from ‘Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel’, as capably rendered by Otto Bonder and Fawcett illustration mainstay Mark Swayze as first seen in Captain Marvel Adventures #18 (cover-dated December 11th, 1942). Preceded by a glorious painted cover from Beck of what would become known as The Marvel Family, the story saw boy broadcaster Billy Batson hosting a radio quiz show and finding himself drawn to sweet rich kid Mary Bromfield. During the course of the show – which also includes Freddie Freeman amongst the contestants – Billy is made shockingly aware that Mary is in fact a long-lost twin sister he never knew he had (take that, Luke Skywalker!), but before he can share the knowledge with her, gangsters kidnap her for a hefty ransom. Although Captain Marvel & Junior rescue Mary, they foolishly fall under the sway of the crooks and are astounded when she idly mutters the word “Shazam!”, transforms into the World’s Mightiest Girl and rescues them all…

Crisis over, the trio then quiz the old wizard and learn the secret of Mary’s powers – gifts of a group of goddesses who have endowed the plucky lass with the grace of Selene, strength of Hippolyta, skill of Ariadne, fleetness of Zephyrus, beauty of Aurora (always crucial when battling thugs, brutes and beasts!) and wisdom of Minerva – before welcoming their new companion to a life of unending adventure…

Notwithstanding the acute implied sexism of Mary’s talents coming from goddesses rather the same source as the boys’, her creation was a milestone of progress adding a formidable, unbeatable female role model to the ranks of the almost universally male mystery-man population of comic books.

The original Captain Marvel is a key factor in the development of American comics history and a brilliantly conceived superhero for all ages. These enchanting, compelling tales show why “The Big Red Cheese” and his oddly extended family was such an icon of the industry and proves that such timeless, sublime graphic masterpieces are an ideal introduction to the world of superhero fiction: tales that cannot help but appeal to readers of every age and temperament.
© 1942, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman: The War Years – 1938-1945


By Roy Thomas, Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster with Don Cameron, Mort Weisinger, Fred Ray, Jack Burnley, Wayne Boring, Leo Nowak, Ed Dobrotka, John Sikela, Sam Citron, Ira Yarbrough, George Roussos, Stan Kaye & various (DC/Chartwell Books)
ISBN: 978-0-7858-3282-9 (Album HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The creation of Superman and his unprecedented adoption by a desperate, joy-starved generation quite literally gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form. Within three years of his debut in the summer of 1938, the intoxicating mix of eye-popping action and social wish-fulfilment which hallmarked the early exploits of the Man of Tomorrow had grown to encompass cops-and-robbers crime-busting, reforming dramas, science fiction, fantasy and even whimsical comedy: all deep and abiding issues for the American public at that time.

However, once the war in Europe and the East snared America’s consciousness, combat themes and patriotic imagery dominated most comicbook covers if not interiors and the Man of Steel was again in the vanguard.

In comic book terms Superman was master of the world and had already utterly changed the shape of the fledgling industry. There was a popular newspaper strip, a thrice-weekly radio serial, games, toys, foreign and overseas syndication and the Fleischer studio’s astounding animated cartoons. Thankfully, the quality of the source material was increasing with every four-colour release and the energy and enthusiasm of Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster informed and infected the burgeoning studio that grew around them to cope with the relentless demand.

Superman was definitely every kid’s hero, and the raw, untutored yet captivating episodes reprinted here were also completely embraced by the wider public, as the new so very portable entertainment medium of comic books became a vital tonic for the troops and all the ones they had left behind…

I sometimes think – like many others of my era and inclinations – that superhero comics are never more apt or effective than when whole-heartedly combating global fascism with explosive, improbable excitement courtesy of a myriad of mysterious, masked marvel men. All the most evocatively visceral moments of the genre seem to come when gaudy gladiators soundly thrashed – and I hope you’ll please forgive the appropriated contemporary colloquialism – “Nips and Nazis”. Isn’t it great then that they’re political legacy remains and a whole new diverse, multinational bunch are back again for the latest costumed cavorters to knock around some more?

This superb hardcover archive – unavailable digitally but still readily accessible in paper formats – has been curated by comic book pioneer Roy Thomas, exclusively honing in on the euphoric output of the war years, even though in those long-ago dark days, publishers and creators were wise enough to offset their tales of espionage and imminent invasion with a barrage of home-grown threats and gentler or even more whimsical fare…

A past master of WWII era material, Thomas opens this tome with a scene-setting Introduction and prefaces each chapter division with an essay offering tone and context before the four-colour glories commence with Part 1: The Road to War, as following the cover to Action Comics #1, the first Superman story begins.

Most of early tales were untitled, but for everyone’s convenience have in later years been given descriptive appellations by editors. Thus, after describing the foundling’s escape from exploding Planet Krypton and explaining his astonishing powers in nine panels, with absolutely no preamble the wonderment begins in ‘Superman, Champion of the Oppressed’ and ‘War in San Monte’ from Action Comics #1 & 2 (June and July 1938 by Jerry Seigel & Joe Shuster) as a costumed crusader who masquerades by day as reporter Clark Kent began averting numerous tragedies.

As well as saving an innocent woman from the electric chair and delivering rough justice to a wife-beater, the tireless crusader works over racketeer Butch Matson – consequently saving suave and feisty colleague Lois Lane from abduction and worse, since she was attempting to vamp the thug at the time! The mysterious Man of Steel made a big impression on her by then outing a lobbyist for the armaments industry who was bribing Senators on behalf of greedy munitions interests fomenting war in Europe…

The next breathtaking instalment ‘Revolution in San Monte’ sees the mercurial mystery-man travelling to the war-zone and spectacularly shutting down hostilities already in progress…

Maintaining the combat theme, the cover of Action Comics #10 (March 1939) follows and the cover and first two pages of Superman #1 (Summer 1939): an expanded 2-page origin describing the alien foundling’s escape from Krypton, his childhood with unnamed Earthling foster parents and eventual journey to the big city. A back-cover ad for the Superman of American club and the October 1939 Action Comics #17 cover precedes Fall 1939’s Superman #2 cover and rousing yarn ‘Superman Champions Universal Peace!’, depicting the dynamic wonder man once more thwarting unscrupulous munitions manufacturers by crushing a gang who had stolen the world’s deadliest poison gas weapon…

After another concise history lesson Part 2: War Comes to Europe re-presents a stunning outreach article thanks to Look Magazine commissioning a legendary special feature by the original creators for their 27th February 1943 issue. ‘How Superman Would End the War’ is a glorious piece of wish-fulfilment which still delights, as the Man of Tomorrow arrests and hauls budding belligerents Hitler and Stalin to a League of Nations court in Geneva.

Accompanied by the March 1940 cover, Action Comics #22 & #23 then declares ‘Europe at War’: a tense, thinly disguised call to arms for the still neutral USA, and in a continued story – almost unheard of in those early days of funnybook publishing. Here Lois and Clark’s fact-finding mission (by Siegel, Shuster and inker Paul Cassidy) spectacularly escalates, and after astounding carnage reveals a scientist named Luthor to be behind the international conflict…

The anti-aircraft cover for Superman #7 (November/December 1940) and an ad for the Superman Radio Program precede Siegal, Wayne Boring & Don Komisarow’s ‘The Sinister Sagdorf’ (Superman #8 January/February 1941). This topical thriller spotlights enemy agents infiltrating American infrastructure whilst ‘The Dukalia Spy Ring’ (Superman #10 May/June 1941) references the 1936 Olympics and sees the Action Ace trounce thinly-veiled Nazis at an international sports festival and expose vicious foreign propaganda: themes regarded as fanciful suspense and paranoia as the US was still at this time still officially neutral in the “European War”.

Behind Fred Ray’s Armed services cover for Superman #12 (September/October 1941, ‘Peril on Pogo Island’ (Siegel, Shuster & Leo Nowak) finds Lois and Clark at the mercy of rampaging tribesmen, although spies from a certain foreign power are at the back of it all, after which a Fred Ray gallery of covers – Action Comics #43 (December 1941), Superman #13 (November/December 1941), Action Comics #44 (January 1942) and Superman #14 (January/February 1942) – concludes the chapter.

All of these were prepared long before December 7th changed the face and nature of the conflict…

After Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor everything changed and Part 3: America Goes to War reflects the swift shift to a war footing, beginning with the notorious Siegel & Boring ‘Superman Daily Strips’ from January/February 1942, wherein an overeager Clark Kent tries too hard to enlist and only succeeds in getting himself declared 4F (unfit to fight)…

Timeless Fred Ray patriotic masterpieces from Superman #17 (July/August 1942) and #18 (September/October 1942) precede a stirring yarn from the latter. ‘The Conquest of a City’ (Siegel & John Sikela) sees Nazi agents using a civil defence drill to infiltrate the National Guard and conquer Metropolis in the Fuehrer’s name… until Superman spearheads a counter-attack…

The other great patriotic cover master was Hardin “Jack” Burnley and a quartet of his very best follow – Action Comics #54 (November 1942) & #55 (December 1942), World’s Finest Comics #8 (Winter 1942 with Batman & Robin thrown in for good measure) and Superman #20 (January/February 1943). That last also provides ‘Destroyers from the Depths’ wherein Hitler himself orders dastardly Herr Fange to unleash an armada of marine monstrosities on Allied shipping and coastal towns. Of course, they prove no match for the mighty magnificent Man of Steel…

After Burnley’s Action Comics #58 cover (March 1943), Siegel, Ed Dobrotka & Sikela detail the saga of ‘X-Alloy’ from Superman #21 (March/April 1943) as a secret army of Nazi infiltrators and fifth columnists steal US industrial secrets and would have conquered the nation from within if not for the ever-vigilant Man of Steel. Sikela’s cover Action Comics #59 (April 1943) concludes this section as Part 4: In for the Duration discusses the long, hard struggle to crush the Axis. By the time of these tales, the intense apprehension of the early war years had been replaced with eager anticipation as tyranny’s forces were being rolled back on every Front…

Following Burnley’s May 1943 Action Comics #60 cover, Superman #22 May/June 1943 provides Siegel & Sam Citron’s ‘Meet the Squiffles’: a light-hearted but barbed flight of whimsy wherein Adolf Hitler is approached by the king of a scurrilous band of pixies who offer to sabotage America’s mighty weapons. Neither nefarious rogue had factored Superman – or patriotic US gremlins – into their schemes though…

Action #62 (July 1943) and Superman #22 (July/August 1943) showcase two of Burnley’s very best covers, with the latter fronting an astounding masterpiece of graphic polemic. Don Cameron scripts and Citron illustrates ‘America’s Secret Weapon!’: a rousing paean to US military might wherein Clark and Lois report on cadet manoeuvres and the Man of Steel becomes an inspiration to demoralised troops in training. Covers by Burnley for Action #63 (August 1943) and Superman #24 (September/October 1943) – which latter provides ‘Suicide Voyage’ – follow. This exuberant yarn by Cameron, Dobrotka & George Roussos finds Clark (and pesky stowaway Lois) visiting the Arctic as part of a mission to rescue downed American aviators. Of course, no one is expecting a secret invasion by combined Nazi and Japanese forces, but Superman and a patriotic polar bear are grateful for the resultant bracing exercise…

‘The Man Superman Refused to Help’ comes from Superman #25 (November/December 1943) and follows Burnley and Stan Kaye’s November 1943 cover for Action Comics #66. In a far more considered and thoughtful tale from Siegel, Ira Yarbrough & Roussos expose the American Nazi Party – dubbed the “101% Americanism Society” – whilst offering a rousing tale of social injustice as an US war hero is wrongly implicated in the fascists’ scheme until the Man of Steel investigates…

Next up and from the same issue is a much reprinted and deservedly lauded patriotic classic.

‘I Sustain the Wings!’ by Mort Weisinger & Fred Ray was created in conjunction with the Army Air Forces Technical Training Command under Major General Walter R. Weaver, designed to boost enlistment in the maintenance services of the military. In this stirring tale Clark attends a Technical Training Command school as part of the Daily Planet’s attempt to address a shortfall in vital services recruitment (a genuine problem at this time in our real world) but the creators still find space for our hero to delightfully play cupid to a lovestruck kid who really wants to be a hot shot pilot and not a mere “grease monkey”…

Wayne Boring & Roussos’ cover for Superman #26 (January/February 1944) precedes Boring’s ‘Superman Sunday Strips #220-227’ for January -March 1944, with the Metropolis Marvel heading to multiple theatres of War to deliver letters from loved ones on the Home Front after which Roussos’ ‘Public Service Announcement’ (from Superman #28, May 1944) urges everyone to donate waste paper – like comic books!

July/August 1944’s Boring cover for Superman #29 finds Lois greeting the USA’s real Supermen – servicemen all – before Action #76 (September 1944 and Kaye over Boring) leads to anonymously-scripted ‘The Rubber Band’ from World’s Finest Comics #15 (Fall 1944). Illustrated by Sikela & Nowak and concentrating on domestic problems, it details the exploits of a gang of black market tyre thieves who are given a patriotic “heads-up” after Superman dumps their boss on the Pacific front line where US soldiers are fighting and dying for all Americans…

Drawn by Boring, ‘Superman Sunday Strips #280-282? (March 1945) then rubbish and belittle the last vestiges of the Third Reich as Hitler and his inner circle desperately try to convince the Action Ace to defect to the side comprised of Supermen like them…

In Superman #34 (May/June 1945) Cameron, Citron & Roussos attempt to repeat the magic formula of ‘I Sustain the Wings’ with ‘The United States Navy!’ as Clark is despatched to follow three college football heroes as they progress in different maritime specialisations through the hellish war in the Pacific.

The enthralling sally through Superman’s martial exploits conclude with one final Thomas-authored article as Part 5: Atoms for Peace? reveals how the fruits of the Manhattan Project changed everything…

As fresh and thrilling now as they ever were, these endlessly re-readable epics are perfectly situated in these gloriously luxurious editions; worthy, long-lasting vehicles for the greatest and most influential comics stories the art form has ever produced. Such Golden Age tales are priceless enjoyment at absurdly affordable prices and in a durable, comfortingly approachable format. What dedicated comics fan could possibly resist them?
™ & © 2015 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Tim Drake: Robin volume 1 – Mystery at the Marina


By Meghan FitzMartin & Riley Rossmo, with Ricardo López Ortiz, Lee Loughridge, Belén Ortega, Luis Guerrero & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-77952-057-9 (TPB/Digital edition)

Created by Marv Wolfman & Pat Broderick for Batman: Year Three, Tim Drake debuted in Batman #436 (August 1989): a child prodigy who had deduced Batman’s secret identity and – from a distance – diagnosed the Dark Knight’s impending guilt-fuelled nervous breakdown following the murder of Jason Todd – AKA Robin #2 and latterly The Red Hood. Tim would become – via a torturous series of circumstances – the third Robin.

Still a child himself, Drake attempted to manipulate Dick Grayson – the first hero dubbed “Boy Wonder” – into returning as the Dark Knight’s partner before grudgingly accepting the position himself (see Batman: A Death in the Family and Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying). After a long period of training and acclimation and many dangerous adventures, a deeply impressed if not quite recovered Batman instead offered Tim the job.

This new kid took fans by storm, and Drake secured a series of increasingly impressive solo mini-series (see Robin volume 1: Reborn) and eventually his own long-running comic book. Being trained by Batman is an arduous and agonising undertaking. During the terrifying Batman: Wargames saga Drake in his turn became estranged from his moody mentor and forcibly retired from the fights ‘n’ tights game. Batman replaced Tim with Stephanie Brown, daughter of the criminal Cluemaster, who became the vigilante Spoiler to compensate for her father’s depredations. Eventually the role of Robin settled upon the tense and hostilely hunched shoulders of Bruce Wayne’s assassin-trained son Damian…

In between a massively complex solo career work with the Batman family and leading the Teen Titans and Young Justice, restless Tim dated teammates Cassie Wonder Girl Sandsmark and Stephanie – who had now evolved into one of Gotham City’s many Batgirls. Peripatetic and aloof he vanished and frequently returned, briefly employing the codenames Red Robin and “Drake” but never seemed to find a comfort zone or niche all is own. However, in the wake of continuity resetting event Infinite Frontier, Tim’s already incredible life was shaken again by a stunning realisation when Batman’s only competition for the title “World’s Greatest Detective” finally realised he was bi-sexual after rescuing old high school friend Bernard Dowd from kidnappers…

Re-presenting a tale from DC Pride: Tim Drake Special #1 (August 2022) and Tim Drake: Robin #1-6 (November 2022-April 2023) this breezy crime conundrum opens with ‘Elephant in the Room’ by Meghan FitzMartin, Belén Ortega & Luis Guerrero, previously seen in the aforementioned Pride special wherein Young Justice seek to stop a phantom pachyderm tearing up Gotham. They have no idea a mystery mastermind has targeted Tim, wrapped up as they all are in sorting out his so-fascinating love-life…

The new nemesis – arrogantly deeming himself private detective Tim Drake’s “Moriarty” – opens his campaign of terror after the other, other, other Robin moves onto a houseboat at Gotham City Marina, and spends weeks just settling into the area’s utterly unique community and ambiance. Thoroughly grounded Bernard is a big help here, but being a grown up is tough, especially after City Hall starts working to close down the artistic outsider enclave. Former costumed comrade Darcy Thomas – now calling herself Sparrow – further complicates events, turning up just as leading anti-eviction activists Mère & Cam are attacked. Mother and daughter are found butchered and dumped in a trash can…

As Mystery of the Marina begins, Tim and Bernard are still in the shaky early days of a first serious relationship… six months and counting… with our hero anxiously locked in the closet about sharing his super-sideline with his new love. Perhaps that’s why he’s happy to cede the lead investigator role to old contact Police Detective Williams – a like-minded investigator who won’t shirk, stint, jump to conclusions… or let the authorities declare this a “boating accident”. This leaves Robin to do what needs to be done in the shadows…

Secret searches and a little deduction in the wake of further outrages lead to an inescapable conclusion: Tim Drake is the true target of an obsessive hidden enemy repeatedly testing him by restaging classic literary crimes, using spectral/holographic/robot beasts like the ghost elephant and a monster orangutan (have you read The Murders in the Rue Morgue? Goldfish? The Moonstone?) to disrupt his life…

Stakes are raised when Robin is framed for a gem robbery and Williams finds himself clashing with his own colleagues, who are happy to call it another inexplicable “masks” crime in the face of overwhelming contradictory evidence, and things get out of control when the challenges cost librarian Mrs Jen her life just for assisting Robin & Sparrow.

Pressure mounts on all sides as reclusive city councilman Rathbone seeks to evict all those degenerate marina dwellers, and Bernard silently accepts that Tim has a secret he can’t share yet. It’s all so fast and too confusing and Robin can’t even work out which classic tale he’s being forced to live out… until impatient, arrogant “Moriarty” overplays his hand…

Or does he?

As the clock counts down and atrocities escalate, the villain’s plans and motivations are revealed as the opponents finally face off, but as the literary war becomes too much like real life and our hero forgets a major maxim of plotting… it’s always the one you’ve let get too close…

Blending devious detective tropes with spectacular superhero schtick sweetened by a heaping of healthy romance, multimedia maven Meghan FitzMartin (Batman: Urban Legends Batman: Urban Legends, podcast Red Rhino, TV’s DC Super Hero Girls animated and Supernatural) is an award-winning writer who crafts tales of genre stereotypes and archetypes via emotion-driven tales in fantastic worlds. Here they’re realised by Riley Rossmo (Harley Quinn), Ricardo López Ortiz & Lee Loughridge with gripping suspense and blistering pace as this Robin finds his feet and his place in Gotham…

Also offering a variant cover gallery by Travis Moore & Tamara Bonvillain, Jorge Jiménez, Sweeney Boo, Dan Mora, Jamal Campbell, David Baldeón &Arif Prianto, Rossmo & Loughridge, Jorge Corona, David Talaski, Rian Gonzales, Todd Nauck, Simone Di Meo, Edwin Galmon, Nick Robles, Juni Ba, Karl Mostert & David Baron, this is a thoroughly modern totally traditional superhero whodunnit you must not miss.
© 2022, 2023, 2024 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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DC Finest: Metamorpho – The Element Man


By Bob Haney, Gardner Fox, Ramona Fradon, Joe Orlando, Sal Trapani, Chic Stone, Jack Sparling, Charles Paris, Mike Sekowsky, Jim Aparo, Mike Esposito, Bernard Sachs & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-184-8 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

It’s a big year for comics anniversaries, and we can’t let this special guy go unmentioned – especially as he’s in this years much-debated new Superman blockbuster.

Sadly, most of his far & wide back catalogue is still unavailable even in digital formats, and when the star is as long-lived and media-present as this guy that’s an awful lot of extra appearances for a fan to find. Maybe this book and the film will act as a catalyst for DC to get a move on…

By the time Metamorpho, The Element Man was introduced to an increasingly superhero-obsessed world, the first vestiges of a certifiable boom were just becoming apparent. As such, his light-hearted, nigh-absurdist blue-collar take struck a Right-Time, Right-Place chord, blending far out adventure with tongue-in-cheek comedy. The bold, brash – often positively vulgar – “Man of a Thousand Elements” debuted in The Brave and the Bold #57, cover-dated January 1965 and on sale from October 29th 1964: just in time for Halloween. After a second try-out tale in the next issue, he and his crackers cast catapulted right into a solo title for an eclectic, oddly engaging 17-issue run augmented by plenty of opportunistic guest shots. Sadly, this canny compendium – collecting all those eccentric debut adventures from B&B #57- 58, 66, 68 & 101, Metamorpho, The Element Man #1-17 and Justice League of America #42 – is at present unavailable in digital formats too.

Sans dreary preamble, the action commences immediately with ‘The Origin of Metamorpho’, written by Bob Haney, who created the concept and character and wrote everything here bar the Justice League story. The captivating art is by Ramona Fradon & Charles Paris and introduces glamorous he-man Soldier of Fortune Rex Mason: employed as a globetrotting artefact-procurer and agent for ruthlessly acquisitive scientific genius/business tycoon Simon Stagg. Mason is obnoxious, tough talking and insolent, but his biggest fault as far as the boss is concerned is that the mercenary dares to love – and be loved by – the plutocrat’s only daughter Sapphire…

Determined to rid himself of the impudent “fortune-hunter”, Stagg sends his potential son-in-law to Egypt tasked with retrieving fantastic artefact the Orb of Ra from the lost pyramid of Ahk-Ton. The tomb raider is accompanied only by Java: formerly a fossilised Neanderthal corpse Rex had extracted from a swamp and whom Stagg subsequently restored to life. Mason plans to take his final fabulous fee and whisk Sapphire away from her controlling father forever, but fate and his companion have other plans…

Utterly faithful to the scientific wizard who was his saviour, Java sabotages the mission, leaving Mason to die in the tomb, victim of an ancient, glowing meteor. The man-brute rushes back to his master, carrying the Orb and fully expecting Stagg to honour his promise and give him Sapphire in marriage. Meanwhile, trapped and painfully aware his time has come, Mason swallows a suicide pill as the scorching star-stone rays burn through him…

Instead of death relieving his torment, Rex mutates into a ghastly chemical freak able to shapeshift and transform into any of the elements or compounds that comprised his human body: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, calcium, iron, cobalt and so many others…

Hungry for vengeance, Mason returns to confront his betrayers, only to be overcome by alien energies emanating from the Orb of Ra. An uneasy détente is declared as Mason accepts Stagg’s desperate offer to cure him – “if possible”. The senior Stagg is further horrified when Rex reveals his condition to Sapphire and finds she still loves him. Totally unaware of his employer’s depths of duplicity, Mason starts working for the tycoon as metahuman problem-solver Metamorpho, the Element Man…

Brave and the Bold #58 (February-March 1965) reveals more of Stagg’s closeted skeletons when old business partner Maxwell Tremayne kidnaps the Element Man and later abducts Sapphire to ‘The Junkyard of Doom!’ Apparently, the deranged armaments manufacturer was once intimately acquainted with the girl’s mother and never quite got over it…

The test comics an unqualified success, Metamorpho promptly started in his own title, cover-dated July-August 1965 and on sale from May 27th, just as a wildly tongue-in-cheek “High Camp” craze was catching on in all areas of popular culture. This blended ironic vaudevillian kitsch with ancient movie premises as theatrical mad scientists and scurrilous spies began appearing absolutely everywhere…

‘Attack of the Atomic Avenger’ sees nuclear nut-job Kurt Vornak seeking to crush Stagg Industries, only to be turned into a deadly, planet-busting radioactive super-atom, after which fashionably foreboding ‘Terror from the Telstar’ pits our charismatic characters against Nicholas Balkan, a ruthless criminal boss set on sabotaging America’s Space Program. Manic multi-millionaire T.T. Trumbull uses his own daughter Zelda to get to Simon Stagg through his heart, accidentally proving to all that the old goat actually has one. This was part of TT’s attempt to seize control of America in ‘Who Stole the U.S.A.?’ with the ambitious would-be despot backing up the scheme with an incredible robot specifically designed to murder Metamorpho. Happily, Rex Mason’s guts and ingenuity prove more effective than the Element Man’s astonishing powers…

America saved, the dysfunctional family head South of the Border, becoming embroiled in ‘The Awesome Escapades of the Abominable Playboy’ as Stagg schemes to marry Sapphire off to Latino Lothario Cha Cha Chavez. The spoiled, wilful child is simply trying to make Mason jealous and has no idea of Daddy’s true plans whilst Stagg senior has no conception of Chavez’s real intentions… or connections to the local tin-pot dictator…

With this issue gloriously stylish innovator Ramona Fradon left the series, to be replaced by two artists who strove to emulate her unique, gently madcap manner of drawing with varying degrees of success. Luckily, veteran inker Charles Paris stayed on to smooth out rough edges.

Before we see them though, the buzz extended to a quick guest shot in a top mainstream title.

A classic romp written by Gardner Fox and illustated by Mike Sekowsky & Bernard Sachs, Justice League of America #42 (February 1966) sees the reluctant hero joyfully join the World’s Greatest Superheroes to defeat cosmic menace The Unimaginable. The grateful champions instantly offer him membership but are astounded when – and why – ‘Metamorpho Says… No!’:

In Metamorpho #5 the first substitute was E.C. veteran Joe Orlando whose 2-issue tenure began with outrageous doppelganger drama ‘Will the Real Metamorpho Please Stand Up?’ wherein eccentric architect Edifice K. Bulwark wants Mason to lend his abilities to his chemical skyscraper project. When Metamorpho declines, Bulwark and Stagg attempt to create their own Element Man with predictably disastrous consequences. ‘Never Bet Against an Element Man!’ (#6 May-June 1966) then takes the team to the French Riviera as gambling grandee Achille Le Heele snookers Stagg and wins “ownership” of Metamorpho. The Gallic toad’s ultimate goal was stealing the world’s seven greatest wonders (including the Taj Mahal and Eiffel Tower) and, somehow, only the Element Man can make that happen…

Elemental entertainment returned to The Brave and the Bold in #66 (June/July 1966) as ‘Wreck the Renegade Robots’ by Haney, Sekowsky & Mike Esposito sees a mad scientist usurp control of the Metal Men just as their creator Will Magnus is preoccupied with a cure to turn Metamorpho back into an ordinary mortal…

Sal Trapani began drawing the regular title with #7’s ‘Terror from Fahrenheit 5,000!’ as the acronymic superspy fad hit hard. Metamorpho is enlisted by the C.I.A. to stop suicidal maniac Otto Von Stuttgart destroying the entire planet by dropping a nuke into the Earth’s core, before costumed villain Doc Dread is countered by an undercover Metamorpho becoming ‘Element Man, Public Enemy!’ in a diabolical caper of doom and double-cross.

B & B #68 (October/November 1966), the still chemically active crimebuster battles popular TV Bat-Baddies The Joker, Penguin and Riddler as well as a fearsomely mutated Caped Crusader in thoroughly bizarre tale ‘Alias the Bat-Hulk!’ – both yarns courtesy of Haney, Mike Sekowsky & Mike Esposito.

Metamorpho #9 shifted to classic fantasy when suave and sinister despot El Mantanzas maroons the cast in ‘The Valley That Time Forgot!’: battling cavemen and antediluvian alien automatons, after which a new catalysing element is added in ‘The Sinister Snares of Stingaree!’ This yarn introduces Urania Blackwell – a secret agent somehow transformed into an Element Girl and sharing all Metamorpho’s incredible abilities. Not only is she dedicated to eradicating evil like criminal cabal Cyclops, but Urania is also the perfect paramour for Rex, who even cancels his wedding to Sapphire to go gangbusting with her…

With a new frisson of sexual chemistry sizzling barely beneath the surface, ‘They Came from Beyond?’ finds a conflicted Element Man confronting an apparent alien invasion whilst ‘The Trap of the Test-Tube Terrors!’ sees another attempt to cure Rex of his unwanted powers. This allows mad scientist Franz Zorb access to Stagg Industry labs long enough to build an army of chemical horrors. The plot thickens with Zorb’s theft of a Nucleonic Moleculizer, prompting continuation in #13 wherein Urania is abducted only to triumphantly experience ‘The Return from Limbo’…

Prior to that, however, the tone of the times dictated the birth of a new – comedic – feature as ‘Meta-Maniacs of the World Unite!’ exposes domestic secrets of the cast. A second dose, ‘Meta-Maniacs of the World Unite… Again??’ closed the issue and even more in-vogue nonsense closed #14 in the form of ‘Meta-Maniacs of the Universe (we’re expanding) Unite… Once More??’

Events and stories grew increasingly outlandish and outrageous as TV’s superhero craze intensified, and ‘Enter the Thunderer!’ (#14, September/October 1967) depicted Rex pulled between Sapphire and Urania whilst marauding extraterrestrial Neutrog terrorises the world in preparation for the arrival of his mighty mutant master. The next instalment augured an ‘Hour of Armageddon!’ as the uniquely menacing Thunderer takes control of Earth until boy genius Billy Barton aids the Elemental defenders in defeating the alien horrors. The drama closed with more silliness and a competition in ‘Meta-Maniacs of the World, This is it… The Big Payola!’

Trapani inked himself for Metamorpho #16: an homage to H. Rider Haggard’s She novels (and the 1965 movie blockbuster) wherein ‘Jezeba, Queen of Fury!’ changes the Element Man’s life forever. When Sapphire marries playboy Wally Bannister, the heartbroken Element Man undertakes a mission to find the lost city of Ma-Phoor and encounters an undying beauty who wants to conquer the world… and who just happens to be Sapphire’s exact double.

Moreover, the immortal empress of a lost civilisation once loved an Element Man of her own: a Roman soldier named Algon who became a chemical warrior 2000 years previously. Believing herself reunited with her lost love, Jezeba finally launches a long-delayed attack on the outside world with disastrous, tragic consequences…

‘Metamaniacs! The Large Payola… Again???’ and a cast pinup by Fradon & Paris stridently underscore the parlous state of play before the oddly appetising series came to a shuddering, unsatisfactory halt with the next issue as the superhero bubble burst. Costumed comic characters suffered their second recession in 15 years and Metamorpho was an early casualty, cancelled just as (or perhaps because) the series was emerging from its quirky comedic shell with the March/April 1968 issue. Illustrated by Jack Sparling, ‘Last Mile for an Element Man!’ sees Mason tried – and executed! – for the murder of Bannister, resurrected by Urania Blackwell and set on the trail of true killer Algon. Consequently, Mason and Element Girl uncover a vast conspiracy and rededicate themselves to defending humanity at all costs. The tale ends on a never-resolved cliffhanger: when Metamorpho was revived as a back-up feature some years later no mention was ever made of these last game-changing issues…

Before that though, one final indigity to endure offers a last look at the cast as‘Meta-Maniacs of East Cupcake (wherever that is), Unite! More Mighty Element Man Contest Winners!’

delivers the last edirorial duties before the lights went out.

The final exploit in this volume as comes from Brave and the Bold #101 (April/May 1972) as, Haney & Jim Aparo close proceedings with a grim and gritty finish for our hero when he assists the World’s Greatest Detective in outrageous murder-mystery ‘Cold-Blood, Hot Gun!’: seeking to save stubborn disinherited Sapphire Stagg from the World’s deadliest hitman.

Individually enticing, always exciting but oddly frustrating in total, this book will delight readers who aren’t too wedded to cloying continuity but simply seek a few moments of casual, fantastic escapism.
© 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1972, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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You Brought Me the Ocean


By Alex Sanchez, Julie Maroh & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-9081-8 (TPB/Digital edition)

In recent years DC opened up its shared superhero universe to include Original Graphic Novels featuring many of its stars in stand-alone(ish) adventures for the demographic clumsily dubbed Young Adult. To date, results have been rather hit or miss, but when they’re good they are very good indeed.

You Brought Me the Ocean reinterprets the origin of a modern day Aqualad, concentrating on the comic book character’s Gay credentials rather than his costumed career. Crafted by Alex Sanchez (Rainbow Boys; So Hard to Say; The God Box; The Greatest Superpower) and Julie Maroh (Blue is the Warmest Color; Body Music), this dreamily-rendered, salty sea tale details the graduation year of High School student Jake Hyde. He lives in the driest part of New Mexico but constantly dreams of deep-sea kingdoms and fantastic marine adventure…

His mother is a perpetual worrier: an uber/tiger mom always telling him to eat properly, dress appropriately and stay hydrated. Ironically though, ever since his all-but-forgotten dad drowned years ago, she has never let him near large bodies of water or even allowed him to swim…

Always a loner by instinct, Jake’s absolute best friend in the one-horse town of Truth or Consequences (formerly Hot Springs, NM) is Maria Mendez. She has already mapped out their future together and has no idea he yearns for the nautical life or that he has already applied to University of Miami to study Oceanography…

The Mendez’s are neighbours and a second family; far more amenable to Jake’s aspirations of leaving New Mexico, even as his own mother shuts down every attempt to discuss the issue. She’s more concerned with why Jake and Maria haven’t started dating yet. Sadly, Jake has never – ever – thought of her that way, and has resigned himself to going it alone if he wants to realise his ambitions.

One day, things change dramatically as Jake suddenly notices class rebel Kenny Liu. He’s known the strange, outspoken outsider since Middle School, but always stayed well away, painfully aware of the target the outsider’s actions made him. Now though, the bully-defying, openly-Gay swim team star athlete seems irresistibly fascinating…

And apparently, the interest is mutual…

Life changes forever when Jake agrees to accompany Kenny on a hike into the desert. The far more mature misfit has plenty of solid advice – on Maria, leaving town and life choices – but all that is forgotten when a sudden flash-flood interrupts their first kiss and activates tattoo-like birthmarks all over Jake’s body. Suddenly, he starts to glow and project water-warping energies…

With Jake’s world suddenly shaken to flotsam and jetsam, shock follows shock and calamity arrives in its wake. Jake’s attempts to explore his sexuality bring crushing heartbreak and chaos, but even that agony is dwarfed when he comes out to his mom and learns the truth about his father, how he’s connected to superhero Aquaman and one of the most dangerous supervillains on Earth…

Moreover, in the throes of such astounding revelations and an irresistible attraction, it’s too easy to forget that not only metahuman maniacs respond with bigotry and mindless violence to what they deem “unnatural”…

A truly magical treatment exploring the processes of coming out and finding yourself, deftly cloaked in the shiny trappings of costumed heroics, the search for belonging and teen feelings of alienation, You Brought Me the Ocean is an intriguing tale to warm the heart and comes with a contact page detailing Resources available to those affected by the issues explored herein; personal messages from Sanchez & Maroh and an extensive section of designs and drawings from the illustrator’s Sketchbook.

A true triumph of inclusive entertainment that has stood the test of time, You Brought Me the Ocean is a modern classic you must read and should share.
© 2020 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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DC Finest: Supergirl – The Girl of Steel


By Otto Binder & Jim Mooney, Jerry Seigel, Robert Bernstein, Leo Dorfman, Al Plastino, Curt Swan, Wayne Boring, Stan Kaye, John Forte, George Klein & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-8131-1 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

This epic compilation is another DC Finest edition: full colour continuations of their chronolgically curated monochrome Showcase Presents line, all delivering “affordably priced, large-size paperback collections”. Whilst primarily concentrating on superheroes, later releases will also cover genre selections like horror and war books, and themed compendia. Sadly, they’re not yet available digitally, as were the last decade’s Bronze, Silver & Golden Age collections, but we live in hope…

Superhero comics seldom do sweet or charming anymore. Narrative focus nowadays concentrates on turmoil, angst and spectacle and – although there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that – sometimes the palate just craves a different flavour.

Such was not always the case, as this superb compendium of the early career of Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El of Argo City joyously proves. Gathering here is pertinent material from Action Comics #252-288, Adventure Comics #278, Superman #139, 140 & 144, Superboy #80, Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #14 & 20 and Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #40, 46, 51 & 57 collectively spanning cover-dates May 1959 to May 1962.

Kicking off proceedings is the delightful DC House Ad advertising the imminent arrival of a new “Girl of Steel”. Sadly missing, however, is the try-out story ‘The Three Magic Wishes’ by Otto Binder, Dick Sprang & Stan Kaye from Superman #123 (August 1958) which told how a mystic totem briefly conjured up a young girl with superpowers as one of three wishes made by Jimmy Olsen. Such was the reaction to the plucky distaff hero that within a year a new, permanent (ish) version joined the Superman Family…

Here, then, after that promo, the drama commences with ‘The Supergirl from Krypton!’, the third story from Action Comics #252 introducing Superman’s cousin Kara, who had been born on a city-sized fragment of Krypton, which was somehow hurled intact into space when the planet exploded. Eventually Argo City turned to Kryptonite like the rest of the giant world’s debris, and Kara’s dying parents, having observed Earth through their scanners and scopes, sent their daughter to safety as they perished. Crashed on Earth, she’s met by Superman, who creates the cover-identity of Linda Lee whilst hiding her in an orphanage in rural small town Midvale, allowing the newcomer to learn about her new world and powers in secrecy and safety. This groundbreaking tale was also written by Binder and drawn by the hugely talented, vastly underrated Al Plastino.

Once the formula was established Supergirl became a regular feature in Action Comics (from #253), a residency that lasted until 1969 when she graduated to the lead spot in Adventure Comics. Then ‘The Secret of the Super-Orphan!’ sees her at orphanage, befriending fellow orphan Dick Wilson (eventually Malverne) who would become her personal gadfly – much as Lois Lane then was to Superman – a recurring romantic entanglement who suspects she has a secret. As a young girl in even less egalitarian times than ours, romance featured heavily in our neophyte star’s thoughts and she frequently met other potential boyfriends: including alien heroes and even a Merboy from Atlantis. Many early exploits involved keeping her presence concealed, even whilst practising and performing super-feats. Jim Mooney became regular artist whilst Binder remained chief scripter for the early run.

In Action #254, ‘Supergirl’s Foster-Parents!’ sees an unscrupulous couple of grifters adopt her in the belief she uses a “power tonic” to gain mighty abilities. They are easily foiled and sent packing, after which Linda meets a mystery DC hero after ‘Supergirl Visits the 21st Century!’ in #255 (Spoilers!: it’s World’s Finest Comics B-feature star Tommy Tomorrow – who you’ve never heard of or cared about…).

Linda’s secret is nearly exposed again in ‘The Great Supergirl Mirage!’ but she covers her tracks expertly before meeting a fellow associate of her cousin in ‘Jimmy Olsen, Supergirl’s Pal!’ by Binder, Curt Swan & John Forte from Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #40 (October 1959). Here the Maid of Might repeatedly saves the temporarily blind cub reporter from a murderous conman, but cannot convince him that she is a Kryptonian and Superman’s secret weapon. Back in Action, she then grants ‘The Three Magic Wishes!’ to despondent youngsters and teaches a mean bully a much-needed lesson.

The Man of Steel often came off rather poorly when dealing with women in those unenlightened days, always under the guise of “teaching a lesson” or “testing” someone. When she ignores his secrecy decree by playing with superdog Krypto, cousin Kal-El banishes the lonely youngster to an asteroid in ‘Supergirl’s Farewell to Earth!’ – but of course there’s paternalistic method in the madness. Next, ‘The Cave-Girl of Steel!’ sees her voyage to Earth’s primordial past and become a palaeolithic legend before Jerry Siegel & Kurt Schaffenberger share ‘Lois Lane’s Secret Romance!’ (Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #14, January 1960) as Linda plays matchmaker in a scheme to get Clark Kent and Lois hitched and eligible to adopt her…

Action Comics #260 does double duty next as the lead Superman – cowritten by Binder & Siegel and limned by Plastino – feature delivers more heartbreak for Lois after Superman & Supergirl perpetrate a very public romantic hoax on the world to thwart a potential alien attack in ‘Mighty Maid!’ In her own slot, the mystical Fountain of Youth transforms Supergirl into ‘The Girl Superbaby!’, eventually recovering for a tale introducing feline fan-favourite Streaky the Super-Cat as ‘Supergirl’s Super Pet!’ – with an attempt to cure kryptonite poisoning imbuing a mischievous stray kitty with on-again-off-again superpowers – after which ‘Supergirl’s Greatest Victory!’ supplies a salutary lesson in humility to the Girl of Steel as a second anti-K attempt almost kills cousin Kal-El…

Over in Superboy #80 (April 1960), Siegel, Swan & Forte detail a bittersweet encounter as Kara time travels to the recent past to alleviate the Boy of Steel’s loneliness and isolation on a star spanning playdate in ‘Superboy meets… Supergirl’s Darkest Day!’ only to realise to late that he must lose those precious memories or risk wrecking the course of history…

In Action Comics Binder moved on after scripting ‘Supergirl’s Darkest Day!’ – in which the Maid of Might rescues an alien prince – whilst incoming Jerry Siegel began his own tenure with ‘Supergirl Gets Adopted!’: a traumatic yet sentimental tale which ends with the lonely lass stuck back at Midvale orphanage.

I’ve restrained myself so please do likewise and act your age when I say the next story isn’t what you think. ‘When Supergirl Revealed Herself!’ (Siegel & Mooney, Action #265) is another story about nearly finding a family, after which Siegel, Swan & Forte’s ‘Jimmy Olsen, Orphan!’ (Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #46) reveals how an accident gives the cub reporter amnesia and he ends up in Midvale where Linda Lee  is hiding whilst learning how to be a Supergirl…

Streaky returns in Siegel & Mooney’s ‘The World’s Mightiest Cat!’, straightening out a lost kid in the process of going bad, before Superman #139 (August 1960, by Binder, Swan & Forte) delivers a dramatic dilemma, a redefinition of the parameters of the deadly crimson mineral, and plenty of thrills with the Man of Steel forced to risk deadly danger and lots of informative flashbacks to rescue a sunken submarine whilst offering cousin Kara a lesson on ‘The Untold Story of Red Kryptonite!’

Courtesy of Siegel & Mooney Supergirl finally finds fantastic fellow super-kids in Action #267’s ‘The Three Super-Heroes!’ but narrowly fails to qualify for the Legion of Super Heroes through the cruellest quirk of fortune. After emotionally picking herself up she then exposes ‘The Mystery Supergirl!’ as a movie PR stunt prior to Superman #140 introducing the Maid of Might to her cousin’s unliving opposite.

Although later played for laughs, most early appearances of the warped duplicate were moving comic-tragedies, here as Binder, Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye debuted ‘The Son of Bizarro!’ When the fractured facsimile and wife Bizarro-Lois have a baby, it is fast-growing super-powered and human looking, causing the first couple of Htrae to be shunned by the populace of their square world of monsters.

The simple-minded, heartbroken father has no choice but to exile his son into space where chance brings the tyke crashing to Earth as ‘The Orphan Bizarro!’ Despatched to the same institution where Supergirl resides, “Baby Buster” becomes a permanent headache for the undercover Girl of Steel until a tragic accident seemingly mutates him. Eventually, distraught dad comes looking for him at the head of an angry army of enraged Superman duplicates and a devastating battle is narrowly avoided, with a happy ending only materialising due to the introduction of ‘The Bizarro Supergirl!’, after which ‘Lois Lane’s Super-Daughter!’ (by Siegel & Schaffenberger from SGLL #20) revisits the Imaginary Mr. & Mrs. Superman scenario wherein Lois & Clark Lane-Kent’s attempts to adopt Linda Lee lead to heartbreak and disaster…

Back in Action #369, Siegel & Mooney introduce fish-tailed Mer-boy Jerro as ‘Supergirl’s First Romance!’ in a charming comedy of manners and errors, whilst #270 provides a double bill beginning with Binder, Swan & Forte’s whimsical delight ‘The Old Man of Metropolis!’ as the Metropolis Marvel glimpses his own twilight years with Kara as Superwoman tending to an increasingly doddery and troublesome dotard of Steel before ‘Supergirl’s Busiest Day!’ by Siegel & Mooney sees her celebrating a very special occasion, accompanied by a cameo packed guest cast including Batman & Robin, Krypto and Superman’s Atlantean ex Lori Lemaris, after which Adventure Comics #278 (November 1960, by Binder & Plastino) sees Linda head to the days of Superboy in ‘Supergirl in Smallville!’ with the intention of proving to herself that she’s ready for adoption. It does not go well and crestfallen Linda heads back to the orphanage…

In Action #271 Siegel & Mooney host another bombastic appearance for Streaky as the wonder child builds ‘Supergirl’s Fortress of Solitude!’ and Binder wrote ‘The Second Supergirl!’ – a parallel world tale too big for one issue. Sequel ‘The Supergirl of Two Worlds!’ came in Action #273 – as did a novel piece of market research. ‘Pick a New Hairstyle for Linda (Supergirl) Lee!’ involved eager readers in the actual physical appearance of their heroine and provided editors valuable input into who was actually reading the series. It’s followed by another guest appearance (in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #51) where Binder Swan & Forte introduce ‘The Girl with Green Hair!’: a sultry superpowered alien who takes an unlikely shine to the lad. Unfortunately, she’s utterly bogus, a sham by a well-meaning Kara Zor-El to get Lucy Lane to be nicer to her supposed boyfriend. It all goes painfully, horribly wrong…

Siegel & Mooney soundly demonstrated DC’s dictum that “history cannot be changed” in ‘Supergirl’s Three Time Trips!’ – to meet Annie Oakley, Betsy Ross and Pocahontas – before Siegel & Plastino describe the terrifying plight of Superman, Supergirl and Krypto as ‘The Orphans of Space!’ (Superman #144) after the Man of Steel seemingly blows up Earth! ‘Ma and Pa Kent Adopt Supergirl!’ then offers a truly nightmarish scenario as Linda Lee experiences what might have been had she reached Earth before baby Kal-El…

Action Comics #276 delivers another double bill beginning with ‘The War Between Supergirl and the Superman Emergency Squad’ (Robert Bernstein, Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye) as Superman is conned into revealing his secret identity and must resort to incredible measures to make a swindler disbelieve his eyes, after which Siegel & Mooney’s ‘Supergirl’s Three Super Girl-Friends!’ offers a return visit with  the Legion of Super Heroes whilst in Action #277 an amazing animal epic ensues in ‘The Battle of the Super-Pets!’ as Streaky & Krypto compete for the attention and approval of their biped bosses…

Siegel & Mooney’s next five Action efforts comprise an extended saga, taking the Girl of Steel in completely new directions. On the eve of Superman announcing her existence to the world, Supergirl loses her powers and – resigned to a normal life – is adopted by childless couple Fred and Edna Danvers. Sadly, it’s all a cruel, deadly plot by wicked Lesla-Lar, Kara’s identical double from the Bottle City of Kandor. This evil genius wants to replace Supergirl… and conquer Earth. Mini-epic ‘The Unknown Supergirl!’, ‘Supergirl’s Secret Enemy!’, ‘Trapped in Kandor!’, ‘The Secret of the Time-Barrier!’ and – following the results of the Hair Style competition –‘The Supergirl of Tomorrow!’ ran in Action Comics#278-282: solidly repositioning the character for a more positive, effective and fully public role in the DC universe. The saga also hinted of a more dramatic, less paternalistic, parochial and even reduced-sexist future for the most powerful girl in the world, over the months to come; although the young hero is still very much a student-in-training, her existence still kept from the general public as she lives with adoptive parents who are completely unaware the orphan they have adopted is a Kryptonian super-being.

Its back to silliness first though as Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #57 (Siegel, Swan & Kaye) offers an Imaginary story in which Linda loses her powers and memories. Through a cascade of coincidences ‘Jimmy Olsen Marries Supergirl!’. However when she returns to normal, newlywed Linda Olsen faces a dilemma that is only further fouled up by ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Two Brides!’

The accent on all these stories generally revolves around problem-solving, identity-saving and loneliness, with both good taste and the Comics Code ensuring readers weren’t traumatised by unsavoury or excessively violent tales. Plots akin to situation comedies often pertained, as in Action #283’s ‘The Six Red “K” Perils of Supergirl!’ Weird transformations were a mainstay at this time, and although post-modern interpretations might discern some metaphor for puberty or girls “becoming” women, I rather suspect the true answer is author Seigel’s love of comedy and an editorial belief that fighting was simply unladylike…

Red Kryptonite, a cosmically-altered isotope of the radioactive element left when Krypton exploded, caused temporary physical and sometimes mental mutations in the survivors of that doomed world. It was a godsend to writers in need of a challenging visual element when writing characters with the power to drop-kick planets. Here as limned by Mooney, the wonder-stuff generates a circus of horrors, transforming Supergirl into a werewolf, shrinking her to microscopic size and making her fat. I’m not going to say a single bloody word…

The drama continues with ‘The Strange Bodies of Supergirl!’ wherein Linda Lee Danvers’ travails escalate after she grows a second head, gains death-ray vision (ostensibly!) and morphs into a mermaid. This daffy holdover was actually more madcappery by Mr. Mxyzptlk, a shout out to simpler times in the face of a major change in the Girl of Steel’s status…

Hogging the cover (by Super-stalwarts Swan & George Klein) the simpler times ended as a major change in the Maid of Might’s status finally occurred. When her parents learn of their new daughter’s true origins, Superman allows his cousin to announce her existence to the world in 2-chapter saga ‘The World’s Greatest Heroine!’ concluding with a monumental battle against ‘The Infinite Monster!’ Here Siegel & Mooney detail how Supergirl becomes the darling of the universe: openly saving planet Earth and finally getting all the credit for it.

Action Comics #286 then pits her against her cousin’s greatest foe in ‘The Death of Luthor!’, prior to ‘Supergirl’s Greatest Challenge!’ seeing her visit the Legion of Super-Heroes to save future Earth from invasion. She also meets the telepathic descendent of her cat Streaky. His name is Whizzy – I could have left that out but chose not to – one more blow for smug, comedic effect…

Ending this epic compilation is ‘The Man who Made Supergirl Cry!’, signalling the beginning of Leo Dorfman’s contributions as scripter. Hugely prolific, he worked from the 1950s for Fawcett, on all Superman Family titles, Batman, DC’s horror line, Dell/Gold Key’s M.A.R.S. Patrol Total War and mystery anthologies including The Twilight Zone, Ripley’s Believe it or Not!, Boris Karloff Mystery and Grimm’s Ghost Stories under his own byline, as Geoff Brown or David George – and probably others – generating quality material continuously from the Golden Age until his death in 1974.

In this tight little closer thriller, Phantom Zone villains mentally control Supergirl’s new dad in a plot to escape their ethereal dungeon dimension… until she stops them with the help of fellow Legionnaire Mon-El…

Possibly the last time a female super-character’s sexual allure and sales potential wasn’t freely and gratuitously exploited, these tales are a link and window to a far less crass time, celebrating one of the few strong female characters parents can still happily share with their youngest girl children. I’m certainly not embarrassed to let any women see this volume, unlike most modern “Bad-Girl” books or male public figures you could possibly name.
© 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 2024 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman: The Golden Age Dailies 1944 to 1947 (volume 2)


By Alvin Schwartz, Wayne Boring & the Superman Studio (IDW/Library of American Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-68405-197-7 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The American comic book industry – if it still existed at all – would be utterly unrecognisable without Superman. Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster’s unprecedented invention was first fervidly adopted by a desperate and joy-starved generation, and gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form. Spawning an army of imitators and variations within three years of his 1938 debut, the intoxicating blend of breakneck, breathtaking action and wish-fulfilment epitomising the early Man of Steel grew to encompass cops-&-robbers crimebusting, socially reforming dramas, sci fi fantasy, whimsical comedy and, once the war in Europe and the East sucked in America, patriotic relevance for a host of gods, heroes and monsters, all dedicated to profit through exuberant, eye-popping excess and vigorous, dashing derring-do.

From the outset, in comic book terms Superman was master of the world. Moreover, whilst transforming the shape of the fledgling funnybook biz, the Man of Tomorrow irresistibly expanded into all areas of the entertainment media. Although we all think of the Cleveland boys’ iconic invention as epitome and acme of comics creation, the truth is that very soon after his springtime debut in Action Comics #1 the Man of Steel was a fictional multimedia monolith in the same league as Popeye, Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes and Mickey Mouse. We parochial and possessive comics fans too often regard our purest and most powerful icons in purely graphic narrative terms, but the likes of Batman, Spider-Man, Avengers and their hyperkinetic kind long ago outgrew four-colour origins to become fully mythologized modern media creatures familiar in mass markets, across all platforms and age ranges…

In the last century and even more so in this one, far more people have seen and heard the Man of Steel than have ever read his comic books. These globally syndicated newspaper strips alone were enjoyed by countless millions, and by the time his 20th anniversary rolled around, at the very start of what we call the Silver Age of Comics, he had been a thrice-weekly radio serial star, headlined 17 astounding animated cartoons, become a novel attraction (written by George Lowther) and helmed two feature films. He had then seamlessly segued into the next Big Thing – television. His first smash 8-season live-action show was but the first of many, making Superman a perennial sure-fire success for toys, games, food, puzzle and apparel manufacturers all over the planet.

Although pretty much a spent force these days, for the majority of the previous century the newspaper comic strip was the Holy Grail all American cartoonists and graphic narrative storytellers hungered for. Syndicated across the country – and often the world – a strip feature could be seen by millions if not billions of readers and was generally accepted as a more mature and sophisticated form of literature than comic books. It also – at the start! – paid better, and rightly so. Some of the most enduring, entertaining characters and concepts of all time were devised to lure readers from one particular paper to another and many of the best became cornerstones of a global culture. Mutt and Jeff, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Buck Rogers, Charlie Brown and so many more escaped humble, tawdry newsprint origins to become meta-real: existing in the minds of earthlings from Albuquerque to Zanzibar. Most still do…

The daily Superman newspaper strip launched on 16th January 1939, swiftly augmented by a full-colour Sunday page from November 5th of that year. Originally crafted by luminaries like Siegel & Shuster and their studio (Paul Cassidy, Leo Nowak, Dennis Neville, John Sikela, Ed Dobrotka, Paul J. Lauretta & Wayne Boring), the mammoth task soon required additional talents like strip veteran Jack Burnley and writers including Whitney Ellsworth, Jack Schiff & Alvin Schwartz. The McClure Syndicate feature ran continuously until May 1966, appearing, at its peak, in over 300 daily and 90 Sunday newspapers: a combined average readership of more than 20 million. Eventually, Win Mortimer & Curt Swan joined the unflagging Boring & Stan Kaye, whilst Bill Finger and Siegel also provided stories, telling serial tales largely divorced from comic book continuity throughout years when superheroes were scarcely seen.

This second volume of the Library of American Comics collection continues the vast reprint program begun in the Sterling/Kitchen Sink softcover editions which ceased production in 1999. All of that material – and these books too – are long overdue for re-release and digital editions. Here, however, the never-ending battle resumes with Siegel & Shuster and their helpers ceding control to new creators, but still addressing the World War the USA was close to ending. These sorties in “the never-ending battle” occur over episodes #31-46, pages #1815 through 2594, and publication dates October 30th 1944 to April 26 1947.

We open with an Introduction by Sidney Friefertig, discussing the changes from conflict to reconstruction and sharing why and how the strip aroused the ire of military intelligence and the FBI after casually stepping on the toes of the ultra-top-secret Manhattan Project. All they had wanted was to explore how atomic energy might affect the Action Ace. Also in review is the Man of Tomorrow’s post-war evolution via new scribe (and later poet, novelist and essayist) Alvin Schwartz (1916-2011) in the ever-evolving social stewpot of Metropolis and an increasingly smaller world.

With the majority of material credited to Schwartz (Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Tomahawk, Newsboy Legion, Slam Bradley, House of Mystery, A Date With Judy, Buzzy, Bizarro) and increasingly the sole province of artist Wayne Boring, the compilation kicks off with Episode 31 (strips #1815-1844 as seen between October 30th and December 2nd 1944) and the dilemma of ‘Superman’s Secret Revealed!’ as “World’s Richest Girl” Aline Wail announces her betrothal to the Man of Steel. Nobody is more despondent than Lois Lane or more surprised than Clark Kent, but by the time this genuine teletype typo is spotted, the story has gone global and Aline’s actual fiancé Aubrey Jones has been outed by frantic reporters – including Lois – as the superhero; thanks to a concatenation of accidents and misconceptions…

Sadly, inveterate gambler Aubrey needs to keep the deception going if he’s to pay off his bookies, and plans to cash in by suing Lois and the Daily Planet, until the real Superman steps in to divert and dispel the mounting media madness…

‘Lois Lane, Millionaire’ (strips #1845-1904, December 4th 1944 – February 10th 1945) then details how a murderous lawyer Homer G. Clutch and his virtual slave Mortimer attempt to procure the feisty journalist’s unsuspected inheritance of $3,000,000 from recently departed Grand-uncle Phineas Lane. Of course, to get the cash, Lois must marry within 10 days of receiving the official letter of notification, and account executor Clutch has many ways of intercepting the pay-out. Moreover, when Clark breaks the story, his scoop makes Lois the target of every other chancer and ne’er-do-well in town. They also all make it onto Clutch’s to-do list before Superman – and ironical fate – end Lane’s dreams of idle indolence…

Mundane crime gives way to wild fantasy next as ‘The Obnoxious Ogies’ (#1905-1946, February 12th – March 31st 1945) are annoying heard but not seen. When the invisible fairy pranksters attach themselves to Superman they make his life – and Clark’s – a cacophony of chaos until the Metropolis Marvel concocts something even these puckish pranksters cannot cope with…

Spanning April 2nd to June 23rd, strips #1947-2018 reveal ‘The Science of Superman’ as intractable intransigent physics Professor Ebenezer Duste refuses student Gil Gilmore his degree because the callow youth used clearly fictious examples of a Man of Tomorrow’s power set in his thesis. With his future career and current romance endangered the kid enlists Superman himself but even he cannot convince the sage of his authenticity, until at the height of a spiralling campaign of bizarre stunts, Duste finally finds his opinions shaken by attentive widow Prunella Busby who has her own way of winning an argument…

When a Daily Planet cooking contest prize goes to elderly spinsters Annabelle and Amelia, they parlay the reception into a longed-for meeting with Superman, inadvertently drawing the cataclysmic attention of Extra-Dimensional prankster Mr. Mxyztplk in ‘A Recipe for Disaster’ (June 25th – August 25th, strips #2019-2072)

Eager to impress, the sprite embarks on a career as a chef to win their attention/annoy the pants off his arch enemy and scare all Metropolis witless. It takes all Superman’s ingenuity and large helping of cunning from the old biddies before the Myxy can be convinced to go home again…

Lois finally finds herself ‘Engaged to Superman’ (#2073-2138, August 27th – November 10th) but when she insists that Clark be Best Man it triggers a wave of popular resentment among the city’s women, who protest in the streets and literally strike a blow for romance. As if that weren’t bad enough, mob chief Gaunt suspends all operations until after the wedding, planning to curb Superman’s anti-crime activities by threatening his bride. First, though, he has to marry Lois and the unhappy couple keep postponing the big day…

Domestic screwball comedy gives way to more traditional dramatic fare when Superman must save the Daily Planet – and Clark’s reputation – after a disgruntled employee publishes implausible predictions that Superman must make come true in ‘Phoney Prophecies’ (#2139-2198, November 12th 1945 to January 19th 1946) after which ‘Lois Lane, Editor’ (January 21st – April 6th, strips #2199-2264) confirms her courage, capability and ingenuity when high powered crooks seek to end her crusading crime reporting by seeking to buy her off with a major promotion. However, staunch and valiant, Miss Lane subverts the plot and makes The Daily Sphere a certified success before exposing the villains and negotiating a most rewarding return to the Planet…

A fantastic crimewave heralds the return of super-science bandit Lex Luthor (AKA Dr. Phineas Hackensack) between April 8th and June 1st (#2265-2312) as the villain unleashes ‘The Red Plague’ as a means of getting Superman into his lab and subjecting to a battery of horrific tests all designed to end his life. When all else fails he turns the Man of Steel into a living atomic bomb but once again tastes bitter defeat, after which ‘The Golden Scam’ (June 3rd – July 20th, #2313-2354) sees super conman J. Phineas Foxtrap gulled by his own greed and lose another fortune after selling fake gold bars to suckers with Superman’s approval. Of course, thanks to maverick atomic boffin Dr. Al Kemist, this time the ingots are completely genuine and vile trickster gets a taste of his own medicine…

In ‘Labors of Love’ (#2355-2378; July 22nd to August 17th) Superman again resolves to propose to Lois, but his heartfelt efforts are continually sabotaged by Mr. Mxyztplk, who spitefully decides that she’s actually the only girl in creation fit to be his mate. Cue crazed chaos, calamity and just a little carnage….

The trend towards whimsy and intellectual challenges continued when Lois is ordered to edit the Planet’s “Advice to the Lovelorn” column. She consequently asks our hero to cure a lazy dockside bum of being old, useless and unemployed in ‘Superman Finds a Job’ (#2379-2432; August 19th – October 2nd. He triumphs by inspiring aging wastrel Sam Brodie to discover his true calling and at last take the wrinkly hand of not-so-patient lady love Miss Tillie Crockett, but it’s a close call and takes all his super-wits and a lot of dumb luck…

Pure wickedness informs ‘The Prankster’s Peculiar Premonitions’ (#2433-2462; October 21st – November 23rd) as the lethal Joker-wannabe feigns clairvoyance and prophecy to humiliate Superman and plunder the city, before a war of aerial signwriters breaks out in ‘Sky Pirates’ (November 25th 1946 to January 4th 1947 and instalments #2463-2498) with a rogue pilot instigating a cunning crime wave of the air.

‘Portrait of a Crime’ (January 6th – February 8th; #2499-2528) introduces devious painter Pierre Laguerre who seeks to remove the Man of Steel from action by the strangest of methods, prior to the book concluding on a potent note of social relevancy.

‘Juvenile Delinquency’ (#2529-2594; February 10th to April 26th 1947) finds privileged brat Stanton Gladstone team up with dead-end kid Nicky Darrow to run wild, have fun and teach their respective families a lesson in parenting. However, rowdy rebellion escalates to felony and possibly murder when veteran criminals lead by top thug Big Jim step in to exploit the situation. Now Superman must not only punish the irredeemably wicked but save what remains of the boys’ tarnished innocence…

These yarns offer timeless wonders and mesmerising excitement for lovers of action and fantasy. The raw-boned early Superman is beyond compare and if you can handle the warts of the era or just crave simpler stories from less angst-wracked times, the adventures gathered here are ideal comics reading, and this a book you simply must see.
© 2018 DC Comics. All rights reserved. Superman and all related names, characters and elements are ™ DC Comics.

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DC Finest: Aquaman – The King of Atlantis


By Robert Bernstein & Ramona Fradon, with Jack Miller, Joe Millard, Otto Binder, George Kashdan, Bob Haney, Nick Cardy, Kurt Schaffenberger, Curt Swan, Jim Mooney, Sheldon Moldoff, Stan Kaye, Charles Paris & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-77952-989-3 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

It’s a big year for comics anniversaries, and we can’t let this guy go unmentioned. This epic compilation is one of the long-awaited DC Finest editions: full colour continuations of their chronolgically curated monochrome Showcase Presents line, delivering “affordably priced, large-size (comic book dimensions and generally around 600 pages) paperback collections”. Whilst primarily and understandably concentrating on superheroes, later releases will also cover genre selections like horror and war books, and themed compendia. Sadly, they’re not yet available digitally, as were the last decade’s Bronze, Silver & Golden Age collections, but we live in hope…

Aquaman is that oddest of comic book phenomena: a survivor. One of the few superheroes to carry on in unbroken exploits since the Golden Age, the Sea King has endured endless cancellations, reboots and makeovers in the name of trendy relevance and fickle fashion but has somehow always recovered: coming back fresher, stronger and more intriguing. He’s also one of the earliest comic champions to make the jump to cartoon TV stardom…

Created by Mort Weisinger & Paul Norris, Aquaman began his reign in in the wake of and in response to Timely Comics’ barnstorming antihero Namor the Sub-Mariner. The watery latecomer debuted in More Fun Comics #73 (November 1941) beside fellow born survivor Green Arrow. Strictly second-string for most of his career, the Marine marvel nevertheless swam on far beyond many stronger features, rendered with style by Norris, Louis Cazeneuve, John Daly, Charles Paris, and ultimately young Ramona Fradon, who took over drawing in 1954.

The Fifties Superhero Interregnum saw Fradon (countless genre anthology tales, The Brave & The Bold, Metamorpho, Fantastic Four, Super Friends, Plastic Man, Freedom Fighters, Brenda Starr, SpongeBob Comics) assume full art chores, by which time Aquaman was settled like a barnacle in a regular Adventure Comics back-up slot, offering slick, smart and extremely genteel aquatic action. She was to draw every single adventure until 1960, making the feature one of the best looking if only mildly thrilling hero strips of the era.

By then, Aquaman had settled into a nice regular back-up slot in Adventure Comics that Fradon drew without missing a beat until 1961: indelibly stamping the submersible stalwart with her unique blend of charm and sleek competence. Month after month, page by page the hero inexhaustibly solved maritime mysteries, crushed nautical naughtiness, wandered and time-travelled, rescuing fish and people from subsea disaster, solving whatever crimes he came across and generally promoting American paternal niceness.

In 1956, Showcase #4 rekindled the reading public’s imagination and slowly but surely spawned a fresh zest for costumed crimebusters. As well as re-imagining its lost Golden Age stalwarts, National/DC undertook to update and remake its hoary survivors. Records are incomplete, sadly, so we don’t always know who wrote what, but this compilation definitely gathers a wealth of Aquaman strips from Adventure Comics #229-284 (October 1956-May 1961), plus short yarns from Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #12 (October 1959), Action Comics #272 (January 1961), Detective Comics #293-300 (July 1961- February 1962) and World’s Finest Comics #125 (May 1962), plus the longer stories from Showcase #30-33 (January/February to July/August 1961), and at long last those from Aquaman #1-3 (cover-dated January/February -May/June 1962)…

Without preamble we dive right into a quartet of sagas by an author unknown, with Adventure Comics #229 revealing how the Sea King spends time in crime-infested Canadian waters and auditions a number of sea creatures to seeking to be ‘Aquaman’s Undersea Partner’, after which smugglers use a stolen shrinking ray to briefly turn the hero into ‘The Tom Thumb Aquaman’ prior to being his being perplexed and endangered by a computor’s prediction of ‘Three Fates for Aquaman’.

Although a citizen of the world, the Marine Marvel was American by default, decent by choice and patriotic by inclination, always helping law men and peacekeepers. Thus AC #232 (January 1957) wryly describes how the Sea King is asked to boost recruitment by joining a US ship’s crew incognito in ‘Aquaman Joins the Navy!’
Aquaman endured public scorn and mockery after comedy impersonator Wackyman used high tech mecahnical sea creatures to lampoon the hero. However, the reasons for the skits of ‘The Sea Clown’ were far from innocent, after which Jack Miller tapped into UFO fever, revealing how aliens from Pluto demand the Sea King fill ‘The Super-Aquarium’ with his “finny friends” before an unknown writer made him ‘The Show-off of the Sea’, ruining an actor’s TV big break… but for the very best of reasons.

In Adventure #236 Otto Binder detailed a battle against a crooked shipping magnate who unleashed ‘The Iceberg of Doom’ before four more uncredited tales swiftly ensued. Chemical pollution was the reason behind Aquaman’s brutal cruelty in ‘The Secret of the Sea King’, a plot to mine shipping lanes was crushed in ‘The Floating Doom’, and ‘The Voyage of the Good Ship Aquaman’ finds the big hearted hero helping an elderly rescue ship skipper before #240 reveals how he helps a children’s author complete ‘The Alphabet Book of the Sea!’ whilst Miller wrote ‘The Mutiny Against Aquaman’ wherein a crooked lawyer poisons his sea pals to facilitate cheating a young man out of an inheritance…

Editorial wisdom at the time decreed comics were ephemeral throway fodder that not even the readership cared about, so many themes and plots resurfaced over the course of months. In ‘The Amazing Feats of Aqua-Melvin’ another, different clown is tranfused with the hero’s blood and develops similar powers, but not the acumen to realise he’s being conned by crooks, whilst in 243 ‘Aquaman’s Amazing Bets!’ the Sea King teaches a gambler/conman a lesson before Robert Bernstein breaks hearts by unleashing ‘The Copy Cat Creature!’ – a fabulous loving beastie from primeval times that adores Aquaman but is simply too big and boisterous to allowed to live in the modern world

In #245, George Kashdan introduces ‘The Sorceror of the Sea’ who outpowers the watery wonder, just as he’s trying to put modern pirates out of business, before we visit ‘The Town That Went Underwater’ where an apparently obsessed Aquaman is determined to make every inhaitant visit his new underwater theme park. Of course, there is deadly reason behind his antics…

Miller detailed ‘Aquaman’s Super Sea-Squad!’ next as his top-trained fish pals help stave off nuclear disaster and a month later wrote how he became ‘The Traitor of the Seven Seas!’: allowing aliens to abduct his beloved sea creatures, after which Bernstein described how aseries of head blows turn the hero evil and greedy. Luckily, faithful octopus Topo is amatch for the piratical Barnacle Gang exploiting the sea change in ‘Wanted: Aqua-Crook!’

For Adventure Comics #250, Joe Millard & Fradon delivered ‘The Guinea Pig of the Sea’ as the Sea King is abducted by a well-intentioned but obsessive researcher fed up with waiting for a moment in the hero’s hectic schedule to open up, prior to being catapulted into the future to find Earth ‘A World Without Water!’ – and remember at this juncture Aquaman needed water every 60 munutes or he would die…

Millard gave way to Miller for a salty tale of Aquaman’s plight as ‘The Robinson Crusoe of the Sea’ (Adventure Comics #252, September 1958), when a chemical spill renders the Sea King allergic to seawater, offering a charming sequence of crisis management stunts by Topo…

Now an affable, dedicated seagoing nomad with a tendency to find trouble, Aquaman braves ‘The Ocean of 1,000,000 B.C.’ (by Bernstein in AC #253, October 1958) after swimming through a time warp, helping a seashore-dwelling caveman against a marauding dragon before finding his way back to the future, in time to end ‘The Menace of the Electric Man’ – a rare dark drama by Miller involving an escaped convict who gains deadly voltaic powers…

Three from Berstein begin with whimsical fantasy ‘Aquaman’s Double Trouble!’ as too many crises at once lead to sea God Neptune stepping in for the hero whilst in ‘The Ordeal of Aquaman!’ crooks maroon the hero in an “arid desert” only to discover how water aware the hero is, prior to battling a crook surgically altered and modified to become ‘The Imitation Aquaman!’

Miller wrote a brace of action tales beginning with #258’s ‘The Incredible Fish of Doctor Danton!’ as Aquaman and a young scientist battle sea beasts mutated by atomic radiation, before the hero is cast out of his body by a crook and must take psychic residence in a fish before ending up ‘The Octopus Man!’ and regaining his own form…

As the Silver Age took true hold, the Sea King’s initial revamp began in Adventure Comics #260 (May 1959) with Bernstein & Fradon’s ‘How Aquaman Got His Powers!’ with the Sea King interfering in US naval manoeuvres to keep Atlantis safe from discovery and harm. From here on, the hero’s nebulous origin – offspring of a union between a human (American) lighthouse keeper and refugee from the embargoed undersea city – was expanded upon and filled out. Eventually, all the trappings of the modern superhero manifested: themed hideout, steadfast sidekick and even supervillains! Moreover, greater attention was paid to continuity and the concept of one shared universe…

In #261, Bernstein pits the hero against a deranged lion tamer in ‘Aquaman Duels the Animal Master!’, and has him launch ‘The Undersea Hospital!’ for ailing sea creatures a month later, before Miller has the hero bring democracy and fair elections to an island nation in AC #263’s ‘The Great Ocean Election!’ prior to Bernstein taking us to New Venice (a US city with canals not roads) where ‘Aquaman and His Sea-Police!’ teach rude and uncaring malefactors how to use boats properly and not litter their submerged marine metropolis…

For Adventure #265 (October 1959) he & Fradon exposed ‘The Secret of the Super Safe!’ detailing a plan to keep the subsea stalwart in soggy isolation whilst dealing with a counterfeiter and blackmailers, before an early crossover heralded Aquaman’s entrance into the wider DC universe.

DC supported the popular 1950s Adventures of Superman TV show with a number of successful spin-off titles. Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #12 (October 1959) featured ‘The Mermaid of Metropolis’ wherein the plucky “news hen” suffers crippling injuries in a scuba-diving accident. On hand to save her is Aquaman and a surgeon who turns her (without her permission or even knowledge!) into a mermaid so she can live a worthwhile life without legs beneath the waves…

I know, I know: but just accepting the adage “Simpler Times” often helps me at times like this. In all seriousness, this silly story by Bernstein is a key moment in the development of DC’s shared universe continuity. The fact that it’s drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger – one of the most accomplished artists ever to work in American comics – makes it even more adorable, for all its silliness; and you can’t make me change my mind…
As National/DC began cautiously remodelling its superhero survivors, amongst the first to feel the benefits were Green Arrow and the Subsea Sentinel. The program included a new origin and expanded cast for each and here (AC #266, November 1959) Bernstein & Fradon tested the waters as ‘Aquaman Meets Aquagirl!’ This offered more information on fabled modern Atlantis whilst testing the waters (Sorry! Not sorry) for a possible sidekick. Remember, in those days the Sea King spent most of his time explaining things to an octopus…

In Adventure Comics #267 the editors tried a novel experiment. At this time the title starred Superboy plus two back-up features – generally Aquaman and Green Arrow. That issue’s seagoing saga ‘The Manhunt on Land!’ saw villain Shark Norton trade territories with GA’s foe The Wizard. A rare crossover with both parts written by Bernstein; the heroes worked the same case with the Sea King facing Norton under open skies whilst the Emerald Archer pursued his foe beneath the waves in his own exploit. Illustrated by the great Lee Elias, ‘The Underwater Archers!’ was a fitting climax to the test, but sadly the arrow portion of the show didn’t make it into this tome, being apparently six pages too many…

In the next issue’s ‘The Adventures of Aquaboy!’ we saw the early years of the Sea King, and following that, permanent sidekick Aqualad was introduced in #269 (February 1960) as Bernstein & Fradon completed the refit by introducing permanent junior partner ‘The Kid from Atlantis!’: a young, purple-eyed outcast from the forbidden city possessing the same powers as Aquaman but terrified of fish… at least until the Sea King applies a little firm but kindly psychology. By the end of the tale the little guy has happily adapted and would help patrol the endless oceans – and add a child’s awestruck perspective to the mix – for nearly a decade thereafter.

With Bernstein & Fradon firmly in control, in quick succession came birthday surprise ‘The Menace of Aqualad!’ (which premiered the Aqua-Cave), battle against mad scientist Captain Noah who was happy to trigger ‘The Second Deluge!’ in his quest for riches, and first proper supervillain ‘The Human Flying Fish!’: a convict rebuilt by a different mad scientist to be Aquaman’s evil counterpart and superior. After all that the heroes took a breather from evil to swim ‘Around the World in 80 Hours!’ only to face constant peril as all Earth’s seagoing crooks used their planned course as a killing ground…

Miller introduced spoiled rich brat Dale Conroy who spends millions to become the hero’s ‘Aqua-Queen!’ in #274, prior to intriguing mystery ‘The Interplanetary Mission!’ in Adventure Comics #275. This was published mere months after the Justice League of America debuted in The Brave and the Bold #28, wherein aliens ask for Aquaman’s help on a rescue mission in space. They are, in fact, human crooks seeking an irresistible weapon and hoping to dupe the bush league hero: securing Kryptonite by to use against Superman. The Man of Steel did not appear, but nets of shared continuity were being gradually interwoven. Heroes would no longer work in assured solitude…

It was back to business as usual for ‘The Aqua-thief of the Seven Seas!’ as Aquaman must clear his name after being framed for stealing a chest full of diamonds, whilst a topical global sporting event prompts the Sea King to organise ‘The Underwater Olympics’ – even though he has ulterior motives that involve more Kryptonite and secret plans. In #278, poor ‘Aqualad Goes to School!’, before proving he has no real need of education, after which cautionary tale ‘Silly Sailors of the Sea!’ see the seagoing heroes give wayward boat joyriders a lesson in responsibility. All of these light pieces were setting the scene for a really Big Event…

Cover-dated January/February 1961, Showcase #30 saw Jack Miller & Fradon vastly expand upon the origin of Aquaman in full-length epic ‘The Creatures from Atlantis!’ Here extra-dimensional creatures conquer the sunken civilisation and Aquaman and Aqualad infiltrate the forbidden city to save the so-superior beings who had always shunned them. From this point on, fanciful whimsy would be downplayed in favour of character-driven drama.

The epic reimagination is followed by another prototype team-up as seen in Action Comics #272 (January 1961) ‘Superman’s Rival Mental Man!’: a clever criminal-sting yarn by Jerry Siegel, Curt Swan & Stan Kaye, centring around Lois’ unsuspected talents as a comic strip artist and career sidestep. Typically, her success as a cartoon creator somehow causes her invention “Mental Man” to come to life and woo her… or does he?

Back in Adventure Comics #280 ‘The Lost Ocean!’ finds the sea sentinels fighting a giant Jurassic centipede to save their favourite TV show before offering more of the same in Showcase #31 (March/April 1961). Second full-length try-out ‘The Sea Beasts from One Million B.C.’ is a wild romp of fabulous creatures, dotty scientists and evolution rays presaging a new path for the Sea King, as Miller scripted the debut Aquaman yarn for comics veteran Nick Cardy. He would visually make Aquaman his own for the next half-decade.

Adventure Comics #282 then delivered tense thriller ‘One Hour to Doom!’ Inked by Charles Paris, this was Fradon’s last Aqua art job for nearly a year and a half, revealing how the heroes survive being trapped on land and away from life-sustaining water, before Showcase #32 (May/June 1961) offered another spectacular epic as Miller & Cardy pull out all the stops for ‘The Creature King of the Sea!’: an action-packed deadly duel against a monstrous villain with murder in mind.

It segued into ‘The Charge of Aquaman’s Sea Soldiers!’, drawn by Jim Mooney in Adventure #284, with the salty stars and their finny legions battling Professor Snark’s scheme to convert Earth’s ocean to fresh water. With this tale the series upped sticks for a new home, replaced by Tales of the Bizarro World. Aquaman and Aqualad were headed to the hind end of Detective Comics, beginning with #293 (July 1961) where they needed only six pages to solve Miller & Cardy’s mystery of ‘The Sensational Sea Scoops’ uncovered by a reporter tracking a submarine pirates. All this time the artist – who had initially altered his drawing style to mirror Fradon – had been gradually reverting to his natural humanistic mode. By the time of fourth Showcase outing ‘Prisoners of the Aqua-Planet’ (#33), the Sea King was a rugged, burly He-Man, and his world – no matter how fantastic – now had an added edge of realism to it, even in this wild romp as the heroes are pressganged into an interplanetary war and shanghaied to a distant water-world…

Detective #294’s deceptively displayed ‘The Fantastic Fish that Defeated Aquaman’ whilst DC #295 saw our heroes defy ‘The Curse of the Sea Hermit’ (Kashdan script), before a new month exposed ‘The Mystery of Demon Island!’ by Miller and the unflagging Cardy. To accompany his more realistic art, and perhaps in honour of their new home, stories became – briefly – less fantasy oriented. ‘Aqualad, Stand-In for a Star’ – (#297 by Miller & Batman regular Sheldon Moldoff) was a standard hero-in-Hollywood crime caper, before Cardy returned to draw #298’s‘The Secret Sentry of the Sea’ – encompassing security duty at a secret international treaty signing…

The next month saw another milestone. After two decades of continuous adventuring the Sea King finally got a comic book of his own. Aquaman #1 (January/February 1962) was a 25-page fantasy thriller introducing one of the most controversial supporting characters in comics lore. Pixie-like Water-Sprite Quisp was part of a strange trend for cute imps and elves who attached themselves to far too many heroes of the time, but his contributions in ‘The Invasion of the Fire-Trolls’ and succeeding issues were numerous and obviously carefully calculated and considered…

The wanderer’s residency in Detective Comics was coming to an end. In #299 the sea scions taught an old blowhard a lesson in tall-tale telling whilst #300’s relic theft-&-recovery case ‘The Mystery of the Undersea Safari!’ was the last Aqua-caper before he moved again, this time to World’s Finest Comics. However, prior to that, his own second issue appeared. ‘Captain Sykes’ Deadly Missions’ is a lovely-looking thriller with fabulous monsters and a flamboyant pirate blackmailing the Sea King into retrieving deadly mystical artefacts.

The World’s Finest run started with #125’s ‘Aquaman’s Super-Sidekick’ by Miller & Cardy as the junior partner briefly becomes an unstoppable uncontrollable pintsized powerhouse before Aquaman #3 closes this compilation in grand style and full-length thrills as ‘The Aquaman from Atlantis’ offers more exposure for the lost city in a tale of traitors, treasures and time-travelling bandit who accidentally takes Aquaman back to the era of swords, sandals and strange creatures…

The 72 adventures gathered here encompass and embrace a period of renewal, taking Aquaman from peripatetic back-up bit-player to his own comic book and the brink of TV stardom. The stories were intentionally undemanding fare, ranging from simply charming to simply bewildering examples of all-ages action to rank alongside the best the company offered at that time. That’s what made them ideal templates for tales of later TV-spawned iterations like Super Friends, Batman: The Brave and the Bold and especially landmark sixties icon The Superman/Aquaman Hour. Comics writers from those years include the abovementioned Bernstein, Binder, Miller, Millard, Kashdan, as well (possibly) as Bob Haney, Edmund Hamiliton, Jerry Coleman and other DC regulars. However at the start the art was always by Fradon, whose captivatingly clean economical line always made the pictures something special…

DC has a long history of gentle, innocuous yarn-spinning with quality artwork. Fradon’s Aquaman is one of the most neglected runs of such universally-accessible material, and it’s a sheer pleasure to discover just how readable they still are. When the opportunity arises to compare her astounding work to the best of a stellar talent like as Nick Cardy, this book becomes a true fan’s must-have item and even more so when the stories are still suitable for kids of all ages. Even though it’s not complete and not available digitally yet, this is a landmark moment for all lovers of pure cartooning brilliance and all-ages adventure storytelling. Why not treat the entire family to a seaside spectacle of timelessly inviting adventure?
© 1956-1962, 2024 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Joker: The Clown Prince of Crime


By Dennis O’Neil, Elliot S! Maggin, Martin Pasko, Irv Novick, Dick Giordano, José Luis García-López, Ernie Chan, Vince Colletta, Tex Blaisdell, Frank McLaughlin & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-4258-9 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

There are many comics anniversaries this year. Some of the most significant will be rightly celebrated, but a few are going to be unjustly ignored. Therefore, I’m again abusing my privileges to carp about another brilliant vintage book criminally out of print and not yet slated for revival either physically or in digital formats…

HEY! THERE’S A CLOWN! MUST BE A PARTY SOMEWHERE!

An old adage says that you can judge a person by the calibre of their enemies, and that’s never been more ably demonstrated than in the case of Batman. Moreover, for most of his near century of existence, but most especially ever since the 1970s, the position of paramount antagonist has been indisputably filled by the Clown Prince of Crime: The Joker! He celebrates a major milestone this year having originally hit newsstands in Batman #1 cover-dated Spring and officially on sale from April 25th 1940. That’s 85 exploding candles and poisoned cakes and he’s still totally lethally crazy after all these years…

In the late 1960s superheroes experienced a rapid decline in popularity – presumably in reaction to global mass media’s crass and crushing overexposure. Batman’s comic book franchise sought to escape their zany, “camp” image by methodically re-branding the character and returning to the original 1930s concept of a grim, driven Dark Avenger. Such a hero demanded far deadlier villains and with one breakthrough tale Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams & Dick Giordano reinstated the psychotic, diabolically unpredictable Killer Clown who scared the short pants off readers of the Golden Age Dark Knight. ‘The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge’ from Batman #251 (September 1973) was a genuine classic which totally redefined The Joker for my generation (and every one since) as the Mirthful Madcap became an unpredictable utterly ruthless psychotic exponent of visceral Grand Guignol. Terrifying and beautiful, for many fans this was the definitive Joker story…

Within a year and a half of that breakthrough revision the Harlequin of Hate was awarded his own series. Titles starring villains were exceedingly rare and provided quite a few problems for writers and editors still labouring under the edicts of the Comics Code Authority.

The outré experiment practically ended after 9 issues (spanning May 1975 to October 1976 plus one late published digital issue in 2019) having utilised some of the most talented creators in DC’s employ and remained a peculiar historical oddity for decades. Now, in these less doctrinaire times those strange tales of the Smirking Slaughterman have a fairer shot at finding an appreciative audience through this full-colour trade paperback collection.

The murderous merriment commences with ‘The Joker’s Double Jeopardy!’; wherein fellow Arkham inmate Two-Face arrogantly escapes, pinking the Felonious Funnyman’s pride and compelling the giggling ghoul to similarly break out thereby proving he’s the greater criminal maniac. Their extended duel of wits and body-counts only lands them both back inside.

The “revolving door” security at Arkham eventually leads to the firing of much-harassed guards Marvin Fargo & Benny Khiss in ‘The Sad Saga of Willie the Weeper!’ However, as the again-at-liberty Lethal Loon attempts to bolster the confidence of a lachrymose minor-league larcenist (for his own felonious purposes, naturally), the defrocked jailers determine to restore their honour and fortunes. Astoundingly, they actually succeed…

Written by O’Neil with art by Ernie Chan (nee Chua) & José Luis García-López, ‘The Last Ha Ha’ then details a burglary and the kidnapping of superstar cartoonist Sandy Saturn by a green-haired, cackling crazy. Witness accounts lead the cops to the ludicrous conclusion that The Creeper is the culprit. Cue lots and lots of eerie chortling, mistaken identity shenanigans and murderously manic explosive action…

The ethical dilemma of a star who’s arguably the world’s worst villain is further explored in ‘A Gold Star for the Joker!’ (Elliot S! Maggin, García-López & Vince Colletta) wherein our Perfidious Pagliacci inexplicably develops a crush on Black Canary’s alter-ego Dinah Lance and resolves to possess her or kill her. Typically, even though she’s perfectly capable of saving herself, Dinah’s current beau Green Arrow (see what I did there?) is also a possessive aggressive kind of consort…

‘The Joker Goes Wilde!’ (Martin Pasko, Irv Novick & Tex Blaisdell) finds the Clown Prince in a bombastic competition with similarly playing-card themed super-thugs The Royal Flush Gang to secure a lost masterpiece, but even as he’s winning that weird war, the Harlequin of Hate is already after a hidden prize. More force of nature than mortal miscreant, the Pallid Punchinello meets his match after assaulting actor Clive Sigerson in #6. Famed for stage portrayals of a certain literary detective, Sigerson sustains a nasty blow to the head which befuddles his wits and soon ‘Sherlock Stalks the Joker!’ (O’Neil, Novick & Blaisdell); foiling a flood of crazy schemes and apprehending the maniac before his concussion is cured…

We learn some surprising facts about the Clown Prince of Carnage after he steals the calm, logical intellect of Earth’s most brilliant evil scientist. Naturally the psychic transference in ‘Luthor… You’re Driving Me Sane!’ (Maggin, Novick & Frank McLaughlin) is two-way and, whilst the newly cognizant Clown becomes ineffably intelligent, Lex Luthor is now a risk-taking maniac unphased by potential consequences and determined to have fun no matter who dies…

The eighth outing for The Joker featured a clash with Gotham’s self-acclaimed Master of Terror as ‘The Scarecrow’s Fearsome Face-Off!’ (Maggin, Novick & Blaisdell) saw the top contenders for scariest guy in town (not counting Batman!) stealing each other’s thunder whilst vying for that macabre top spot, before the villainous vignettes of this captivating chronicle conclude with a claws-out clash as ‘The Cat and the Clown!’ (Maggin, Novick & Blaisdell) sees an aged comedian and his million-dollar kitty targeted by rival rogues Catwoman and the Joker.

Unhappily for the crooks they had both underestimated the grizzled guile of their octogenarian victim…

Latterly in Fall of 2019 the unpublished tenth issue was released digitally and hopefully one day a truly complete collection will be released including it, although it does appear in the monolithic, print-only and rather inaccessibly expensive The Joker: The Bronze Age Omnibus (Collected). For the sake of full disclosure, Pasko & Novick’s tale ‘99 and 99/100% Dead!’ involves a deal with the Devil (AKA “Lou Cipher”) and scheme to murder Earth’s greatest heroes that doesn’t quite come about and end on a cliffhanger…

With covers by Dick Giordano, Chan & García-López, this quirky oddment offers slick plotting, madcap malice and lunatic larks and a lesser degree of murderous mayhem than most modern fans might be comfortable with, but also strong storytelling and stunning art to delight fans of traditional Fights ‘n’ Tights sagas.
© 1975, 1976, 2013 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Golden Age Green Lantern Archives volumes 1 & 2


By Bill Finger, Martin Nodell, E.E. Hibbard, Irwin Hasen & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-507-4 (HB vol 1), 978-1-56389-794-8 (HB vol 2)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Time for another Birthday briefing as we exploit the month of renewal and fresh starts by celebrating 85 glorious years for another Golden Age stalwart: someone who has gained a modern cachet as probably DC’s most venerably proud gay icon…

The ever-expanding array of companies that became DC published many iconic “Firsts” in the early years of the industry. Associated outfit All-American Publications (co-publishers until bought out by National/DC in 1946) originated the first comic book super-speedster as well as the monumentally groundbreaking Wonder Woman, The Atom, Hawkman, Johnny Thunder and so many others who became mainstays of DC’s pantheon of stars.

Thanks to comics genius and editorial wunderkind Sheldon Mayer, All-American Comics  published the first comic book super-speedster in Flash Comics. They followed up a few months later with another evergreen and immortal all-star.

Lighting up newsstands from May 17th 1940, The Green Lantern debuted in anthological All-American Comics #16 (cover-dated July of that auspicious year). It was the company’s flagship title just as superheroes began to truly dominate the market, supplanting newspaper strip reprints and stock genre characters in the still primarily anthology-based industry.

The Emerald Gladiator would be swiftly joined in A-AC by The Atom, Red Tornado, Sargon the Sorcerer and Doctor Mid-Nite, until eventually only gag strips such Mutt and Jeff and exceptional topical tough-guy military strips Hop Harrigan (Ace of the Airwaves) and Red, White and Blue remained to represent mere mortal heroes. And then, tastes shifted after the war and costumed crusaders faded away, to be replaced by cowboys, cops, clowns and private eyes…

Devised by up-and-coming cartoonist Martin Nodell (and fleshed out by Bill Finger in the same generally unsung way he had contributed to the success of Batman), GL soon became AA’s second smash sensation.

The arcane avenger gained his own solo-starring title little more than a year after his premiere and also appeared in other anthologies including Comics Cavalcade and All Star Comics for just over a decade before, like most first-generation superheroes, he faded away in the early1950s. However, GL first suffered the uniquely humiliating fate of being edged out of his own strip and comic book by his pet, Streak the Wonder Dog…

However, that’s the stuff of other reviews. This spectacular, quirkily beguiling deluxe Archive edition (collecting the Sentinel of Justice’s appearances from All-American Comics #16-30 – covering July 1940 to September 1941 as well as the Fall 1941cover-dated Green Lantern#1) opens with a rousing reminiscence from Nodell in a Foreword discussing the origins of the character before the parade of raw enchantment starts with the incredible history of The Green Flame of Life…

Ambitious young engineer Alan Scott only survives the sabotage and destruction of a passenger-packed train due to the occult intervention of a battered old railway lantern. Bathed in its eerie emerald light, he is regaled by a mysterious green voice with the legend of how a meteor once fell in ancient China. It spoke to the people, predicting Death, Life and Power.

The star-stone’s viridian glow brought doom to the savant who reshaped it into a lamp, sanity to a madman centuries later and now promised incredible power to bring justice to wronged innocents.

Instructing Scott to fashion a ring from its metal and draw a charge of power from the lantern every 24 hours, the ancient artefact urges the engineer to use his formidable willpower to end all evil: a mission Scott eagerly takes up by promptly crushing corrupt industrialist Dekker – who had callously caused wholesale death just to secure a lucrative rail contract…

The ring makes Scott immune to all minerals and metals, enables him to fly and pass through walls, but as he battles Dekker’s thugs the grim avenger painfully discovers that living – arguably “organic” – materials such as wood or rubber can penetrate his jade defences and cause him mortal harm. The saboteurs duly punished, Scott resolves to carry on the fight and devises a “bizarre costume” to conceal his identity and strike fear and awe into wrongdoers.

Most of the stories at this time were untitled, and A-AC #17 (August 1940) finds Scott in Metropolis (long before it became the fictional home of Superman) where his new employer is squeezed out of a building contract by a crooked City Commissioner in bed with racketeers. With lives at risk from shoddy construction, the Green Lantern moves to stop the gangsters but nearly loses his life to overconfidence before finally triumphing, after which #18 finds Scott visiting the 1940 New York World’s Fair. This yarn (which I suspect was devised for DC’s legendary comic book premium New York World’s Fair Comics #2 but shelved at the last moment) introduces feisty romantic interest Irene Miller as she attempts to shoot the gangster who framed her brother.

Naturally, gallant he-man Scott had to get involved, promptly discovering untouchable gang-boss Murdock owns his own Judge, by the simple expedient of holding the lawman’s daughter captive…

However, once Alan applies keen wits and ruthless mystic might to the problem, Murdock’s power – and life – are forfeit, after which, in #19, Scott saves a man from an attempted hit-&-run and finds himself ferreting out a deadly ring of insurance scammers collecting big pay-outs through inflicting “accidents” upon unsuspecting citizens.

All-American Comics #20 opened with a quick recap of GL’s origin before instituting a major change in the young engineer’s life. Following the gunning down of a roving radio announcer and assassination of that reporter’s wife, our hero investigates APEX Broadcasting System in Capitol City and again meets Irene Miller. She works at APEX and, with Alan’s help, uncovers a scheme whereby broadcasts are used to transmit coded instructions to smugglers. Once the Ring-wielder mops up the gang and their inside man, engineer Scott takes a job at the company and begins a hapless romantic pursuit of capable, valiant Irene.

Thanks to scripter Bill Finger, Green Lantern was initially a grim, mysterious and spookily implacable figure of vengeance, weeding out criminals and gangsterism but, just as with early Batman sagas, there was always a strong undercurrent of social issues, ballsy sentimentality and human drama. All-American #21 sees the hero expose a cruel con wherein a crooked lawyer presses young criminal Cub Brenner into posing as the long-lost son of a wealthy couple to steal their fortune. Of course, the kid has a change of heart and everything ends happily, but not before stupendous skulduggery and atrocious violence ensue…

In #22, when prize-fighter Kid McKay refuses to throw a bout, mobsters abduct his wife and even temporarily overcome the fighting-mad Emerald Guardian. Moreover, when one brutal thug puts on the magic ring, he swiftly suffers a ghastly punishment allowing GL to emerge victorious. Slick veteran Everett E. Hibbard provided the art for A-AC #23, and his famed light touch frames GL’s development into a less fearsome and more public spirited and approachable champion. As Irene continues to rebuff Alan’s advances – in vain hopes of landing his magnificent mystery man alter ego – the engineer accompanies her to interview movie star Delia Day and stumbles into a cruel blackmail racket. Despite their best efforts the net result is heartbreak, tragedy and many deaths.

Issue #24 then sees the Man of Light going undercover to expose philanthropist tycoon R.J. Karns, who maintains his vast fortune by trafficking unemployed Americans into slavery on a tropical Devil’s Island, and #25 finds Irene uncovering sabotage at a steel mill. With GL’s unsuspected help she then exposes purported enemy mastermind The Leader as no more than an unscrupulous American insider trader trying to force prices down for a simple Capitalist coup…

Celebrated strip cartoonist Irwin Hasen began his long association with Green Lantern in #26 when the hero aids swindled citizens whose lending agreements with a loan shark are being imperceptibly altered by a forger to keep them paying in perpetuity, after which the artist illustrated the debut appearance of overnight sensation Doiby Dickles in All-American #27 (June 1941). The rotund, middle-aged Brooklyn-born cab driver was simply intended as light foil and occasional sidekick for the poker-faced Emerald Avenger, but rapidly grew to be one of the most popular and beloved comedy stooges of the era; soon sharing covers and even by-lines with the star.

In this initial dramatic outing, he bravely defends fare Irene (sorry: irresistible – awful, but irresistible) from assailants as she carries plans for a new radio receiver device. For his noble efforts, Doiby is sought out and thanked by Green Lantern. After the verdant vigilante investigates further, he discovers enemy agents at the root of the problem, but when Irene is again targeted, the Emerald Avenger is apparently killed. This time, to save Miss Miller, Doiby disguises himself as “de Lantrin” and confronts the killers alone before the real deal turns up to end things. As a reward, the Brooklyn bravo is offered an unofficial partnership…

In #28 the convenient death of millionaire Cyrus Brand and a suspicious bequest to a wastrel nephew lead Irene, Doiby & Alan to sinister gangster The Spider, who manufactures deaths by natural causes, after which #29 finds GL and the corpulent cabbie hunting mobster Mitch Hogan, who forces pharmacies to buy his counterfeit drugs and products. The brute utilises strongarm tactics to ensure even the courts carry out his wishes – at least until the Lantern and his wrench-wielding buddy give him a dose of his own medicine…

The last All-American yarn here is from issue #30 (cover-dated September 1941) and again sees Irene sticking her nose into other peoples’ business. This time she exposes a brace of crooked bail bondsmen exploiting former criminals trying to go straight, before being again kidnapped. This high-energy compilation concludes with the rousing contents of Green Lantern #1 from Fall 1941, scripted by Finger and exclusively illustrated by Nodell, who had by this time dropped his potentially face-saving pseudonym Mart “Dellon”. The magic begins with a 2-page origin recap in ‘Green Lantern – His Personal History’, before ‘The Masquerading Mare!’ sees GL & Doiby smash the schemes of racketeer Scar Jorgis… who goes to quite extraordinary lengths to obtain a racehorse inherited by Irene.

Following an article by Dr. William Moulton Marston (an eminent psychologist familiar to us as the creator of Wonder Woman) discussing the topic of ‘Will Power’, comic thrills resume when a city official is accused of mishandling funds allocated to buy pneumonia serum in ‘Disease!!’ Although GL & Doiby spearhead a campaign raising money to prevent an epidemic, events take a dark turn when untouchable, unimpeachable Boss Filch experiences personal tragedy and exposes his grafting silent partners high in the city’s government hierarchy…

Blistering spectacle is the focus of ‘Arson in the Slums’, as Alan and Irene are entangled in a crusading publisher’s strident campaign to renovate a ghetto. Of course, philanthropic Barton and his real estate pal Murker have only altruistic reasons for their drive to re-house the city’s poorest citizens. Sure, they do…

Doiby is absent from that high octane thriller but guest-stars with the Emerald Ace in prose tale ‘Hop Harrigan in “Trailers of Treachery” – by an unknown scripter and probably illustrated by Sheldon Mayer: a ripping yarn starring AA’s aviation ace (and radio star) after which ‘Green Lantern’ & Doiby travel South of the Border to scenic Landavo to investigate tampering with APEX’s short-wave station and end up in a civil war. They soon discover the entire affair has been fomented by foreign agents intent on destroying democracy on the continent…

With the threat of involvement in the “European War” a constant subject of US headlines, this type of spy story was gradually superseding general gangster yarns, and as Green Lantern displayed his full bombastic might against tanks, fighter planes and invading armies, nobody realised that within mere months America and the entire comic book industry were to be refitted and reconfigured beyond all recognition. Soon mystery men would be patriotic morale boosters parading and sermonising ad infinitum in every corner of the industry’s output as the real world brutally intruded on the hearts and minds of the nation…

Including a breathtaking selection of stunning and powerfully evocative covers by Sheldon Moldoff, Hasen & Howard Purcell, this magnificent book is a sheer delight for lovers of the early Fights ‘n’ Tights genre: gripping, imaginative and exuberantly exciting – but yet again remains out of print and unavailable in digital formats. One day, though…


Golden Age Green Lantern Archives volume 2

This second engagingly impressive hardcover Archive edition spans October 1941 to May 1942, collecting the Viridian Vigilante’s appearances from Green Lantern Quarterly #2-3 (Winter & Spring 1942) and the leads tales from All-American Comics #31-38. It opens with rousing reminiscences, intriguing comparisons and tantalising trivia titbits, in a Foreword by godfather of American fandom Dr. Jerry Bails, prior to the procession of pictorial peril begins…

Ambitious young engineer Alan Scott survived the sabotage and destruction of a passenger-packed train due only to the intervention of a battered old railway lantern. Bathed in its eerie verdant glow, he was regaled by a mysterious “green voice” with the legend of how a meteor fell in ancient China and spoke to the people: predicting Death, Life and Power.

After bringing doom to the mystic who reshaped it into a lamp and, centuries later, sanity to a madman, it now promised incredible might to bestow justice to the innocent. Instructing the engineer to fashion a ring from its metal and draw a charge of power from the lantern every 24 hours, the ancient artefact urged the engineer to use his formidable willpower to end all evil – a mission Scott eagerly embraced. The ring made him immune to all minerals and metals, and enabled him to fly and pass through solid matter amongst many other miracles, but was powerless against certain organic materials such as wood or rubber which could penetrate his jade defences and cause him mortal harm…

After wandering the country for months, Scott eventually settled in Capitol City, taking a job as first engineer and eventually radio announcer at APEX Broadcasting System. He also fruitlessly pursued feisty reporter Irene Miller. Before long he had a trusted sidekick in the flabby form of Doiby Dickles, a rotund, middle-aged Brooklyn-born cab driver. Originally intended as a light foil for the grim, poker-faced Emerald Avenger, the bumbling buddy grew to be one of the most popular and beloved sidekicks of the era. Thanks to scripter Bill Finger – who wrote all the stories in this volume – GL was a grim, brooding, spookily mysterious figure of vengeance weeding out evil in tales strongly highlighting social realism, ballsy sentimentality and human drama.

Illustrated by Nodell, the comics action starts in All-American Comics #31’s ‘The Adventure of the Underfed Orphans!’ as Alan & Irene probe food poisoning at a municipal children’s home, and uncover a shocking web of abuse and graft leading to the upper echelons of City Hall and the grimiest gutters of the underworld…

Most of the All-American GL tales were untitled, such as Hasen’s effort in #32, revealing how a veteran beat cop’s son falls in with the wrong crowd. Framed by his boss and arrested by his own dad, vengeful Danny is only saved from ruining his life forever by the Emerald Avenger & Doiby who help him get the goods on Gardenia and reconcile with his grateful dad. The next story (limned by Nodell) strikes close to home as gangster Pug Deagan tries to take over the Taxicab Drivers’ union and Doiby calls on his Grim Green pal to clean up the racket and expose the real brain behind the operation, whilst in A-AC #34, the Dynamic Trio of Alan, Irene & Mr. Dickles investigate a collapsing building and are drawn into a colossal construction scandal involving the Mayor, and culminating in the horrific failure of Capitol City’s biggest and busiest bridge. Always one of the most powerful characters in comics, this tale especially demonstrates the sheer scope and scale of Green Lantern’s might.

All-American Comics #35 sees Doiby wracked by toothache and haplessly stumbling into a grisly murder at the dentist’s office. Once again racketeers are trying to take over a union and only GL & Dickles can stop them. The tale concludes with the cabbie having that tooth punched out and learning the secret of Alan Scott – an even bigger shock!

A huge hit from the off, the Emerald Crusader was fast-tracked into his own solo title, where creators were encouraged to experiment with format. Green Lantern Quarterly #2 (cover-dated Winter 1942) offered ‘The Tycoon’s Legacy’ by Finger & Nodell: a 4-chapter “novel-length story” seeing radio engineer Scott promoted to roving man-with-a-microphone, and promptly rushing to the assistance of a poor but honest lawyer and a porter swindled out of a $5,000,000 bequest. Both cases deliciously intertwine like a movie melodrama, and also see a framed man freed from the asylum to challenge the swindling estate executors who had trapped him there…

Events take a murderous turn just as Alan’s emerald alter ego gets involved, and before long Green Lantern is cracking heads and taking names in the hunt for the mastermind behind it all – a man known only as ‘Baldy’…

Finger was a master of such socially redeeming mystery thrillers, and the unrepentant fan in me can’t help but wonder what he could have accomplished with such a prodigious page count on his other “Dark Avenger” assignment Batman and Robin…

Hasen illustrated the remaining All-American yarns in this collection, beginning with #36 (March 1942), taking GL & Doiby to the motor racing circuit to foil the machinations of mobsters murdering drivers of a new kind of car. With no clue as to how the killings are accomplished, Doiby volunteers to drive the ill-fated Benson Comet, trusting in his pal “Da Lantrin” to save the day as usual…

A-AC #37 has the heroes helping a disgraced pilot whose crashed plane cost America its greatest scientific minds. Closer investigation reveals not only Fog Blake’s innocence but that the Brain Trust had actually been cunningly abducted by Nazi agents – but not for long, after which #38 pits the Emerald Avenger against a diminutive criminal strategist organising American gangs like ‘Another Napoleon’ before facing his own Waterloo in a blaze of verdant light…

With America freshly put on an all-encompassing war-footing, superheroes at last tackled the world’s latest monsters full-on, and with great verve and enthusiasm this stunning selection concludes with another novel-length epic from the third Green Lantern Quarterly and deliciously crafted by Finger & Nodell.

It begins with ‘The Living Graveyard of the Sea’ as Alan & Irene (plus stowaway Doiby) take ship for Australia, only to be torpedoed by a gigantic German super U-Boat. Although Green Lantern fights off the air and sea assault, the liner is lost. Survivors take to lifeboats and the one with Doiby, Irene & Alan is drawn into a vast impenetrable fog-bank. The vapours conceal an ancient wonder: a Sargasso Sea enclave of mariners from many eras who have, over centuries, evolved into a truly egalitarian, pacifist society. Sadly, the lifeboat contains a cross section of modern America, all horribly infected with greed, arrogance, prejudice and pride, so – although welcomed – the newcomers soon disrupt the idyllic microcosm.

Things take an even worse turn as another U-Boat surfaces within the sea city and fanatical Kapitan Schmidt attempts to annexe the realm and convert the ancients to ‘The Nazi Dream’. Stakes are raised even further when he finally gets a message through to Berlin and Hitler himself demands that the strategically crucial secret island be taken at all costs…

The fantastic finale comes as Irene & Doiby redeem their selfish fellow Americans and even convince the calmly neutral Sargasso citizens to fight for freedom and liberty in ‘Utopia vs. Totalitarianism’ whilst all Green Lantern has to do is sink an entire Nazi naval and aerial armada tasked with taking the hidden sea world…

I believe – like so many others – that superhero comics are never more apt or effective than when they wholeheartedly combat fascism with explosive, improbable excitement and mysterious masked marvel men. The most satisfyingly evocative and visceral moments of the genre all seem to come when gaudy gladiators soundly thrash bigots, supremacists and agents of organised intolerance, and the staggering denouement depicted here is one of the most expansive and breathtaking ever seen…

Complete with stellar covers by Nodell & Hasen, this riotous vintage assembly of classic Fights ‘n’ Tights fare is enthralling, engrossing and overwhelmingly addictive – even if not to every modern fan’s taste – and no lover of Costumed Dramas can afford to miss out on the fun…
© 1940, 1941, 1942, 1999, 2002 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.